Techniques for retrieving multimedia information using a paper-based interface

ABSTRACT

The present invention provides techniques for generating a printable representation of multimedia information that can be printed on a paper medium to provide a paper-based interface for the multimedia information. According to the teachings of the present invention, the paper document generated by printing the printable representation on a paper medium also provides an interface for accessing or retrieving multimedia information in electronic form. The paper document may thus be used as an indexing and retrieval tool for retrieving multimedia information.

CROSS-REFERENCES TO RELATED APPLICATIONS

The present application incorporates by reference for all purposes theentire contents of the following applications:

-   -   (1) U.S. Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No. 08/995,616        filed Dec. 22, 1997;    -   (2) U.S. Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No. 09/149,921        filed Sep. 9, 1998;    -   (3) U.S. Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No. ______,        (Attorney Docket No. 15358-006500US) entitled “PAPER-BASED        INTERFACE FOR MULTIMEDIA INFORMATION” filed concurrently with        this application;    -   (4) U.S. Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No. ______,        (Attorney Docket No. 15358-007300US) entitled “TECHNIQUES FOR        ANNOTATING MULTIMEDIA INFORMATION” filed concurrently with this        application;    -   (5) U.S. Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No. ______,        (Attorney Docket No. 15358-007400US) entitled “PAPER-BASED        INTERFACE FOR MULTIMEDIA INFORMATION STORED BY MULTIPLE        MULTIMEDIA DOCUMENTS” filed concurrently with this application;        and    -   (6) U.S. Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No. ______,        (Attorney Docket No. 15358-007500US) entitled “TECHNIQUES FOR        GENERATING A COVERSHEET FOR A PAPER-BASED INTERFACE FOR        MULTIMEDIA INFORMATION” filed concurrently with this        application.

COPYRIGHT

A portion of the disclosure of this patent document contains materialthat is subject to copyright protection. The copyright owner has noobjection to the xerographic reproduction by anyone of the patentdocument or the patent disclosure in exactly the form it appears in theU.S. Patent and Trademark Office patent file or records, but otherwisereserves all copyright rights whatsoever.

BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION

The present invention relates to techniques for accessing multimediainformation, and more particularly to techniques for generating aprintable representation of the multimedia information that can beprinted on a paper medium to provide a paper-based interface for themultimedia information.

With the rapid growth of computers, an increasing amount of informationis being stored in the form of electronic (or digital) documents. Theseelectronic documents include multimedia documents that store multimediainformation. The term “multimedia information” is used to refer toinformation that comprises information of several different types in anintegrated form. The different types of information included inmultimedia information may include a combination of text information,graphics information, animation information, sound (audio) information,video information, and the like. Multimedia information is also used torefer to information comprising one or more objects wherein the objectsinclude information of different types. For example, multimedia objectsincluded in multimedia information may comprise text information,graphics information, animation information, sound (audio) information,video information, and the like.

Several different techniques and tools are available today for accessingand navigating multimedia information that may be stored in electronicmultimedia documents. Examples of such tools and/or techniques includeproprietary or customized multimedia players (e.g., RealPlayer™ providedby RealNetworks, Microsoft Windows Media Player provided by MicrosoftCorporation, QuickTime™ Player provided by Apple Corporation, Shockwavemultimedia player, and others), video players, televisions, personaldigital assistants (PDAs), and the like.

The tools and techniques described above that are conventionallyavailable for accessing multimedia information focus on the electronicor digital nature/format of the multimedia information and output themultimedia information in electronic or digital form. For example,multimedia players typically execute on a computer system and output themultimedia information stored in multimedia documents via output devicescoupled to the computer such as a monitor, a speaker, and the like.

While retrieving multimedia information in digital form is adequate forsome users, it is a well-known fact that many users find it easier tocomprehend and assimilate information when the information is printed ona paper medium rather than in the digital form. These users thus preferto access information in a paper format by printing the information on apaper medium. For example, most people who encounter a long documentwill typically print the document on paper before reading the document,even though there are several tools (e.g., word processors, browsers,etc.) available for viewing and navigating the document in electronicform. While there are several tools available for printing ordinary datafiles containing text and images on paper (e.g., a printer coupled to aword-processor), there are no techniques or tools that allow users toprint multimedia information on a paper-medium in a format and stylethat is readable by the user. As described above, all of theconventionally available tools and techniques for retrieving multimediainformation focus on the electronic or digital nature/format of themultimedia content and output the multimedia information in electronicor digital form.

In light of the above, there is a need for techniques that allow usersto access multimedia information via a paper-based interface.

BRIEF SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides techniques for generating a printablerepresentation of multimedia information that can be printed on a papermedium to provide a paper-based interface for the multimediainformation. According to the teachings of the present invention, thepaper document generated by printing the printable representation on apaper medium also provides an interface for accessing or retrievingmultimedia information in electronic form. The paper document may thusbe used as an indexing and retrieval tool for retrieving multimediainformation. For example, a user may use a paper document generated fora video recording to access or retrieve portions of the video recording.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, techniques areprovided for using a paper document to retrieve multimedia informationstored in a multimedia document in electronic form, wherein one or moreuser-selectable identifiers are printed on the paper document. In thisembodiment, the present invention receives a first signal indicatingselection of a first user-selectable identifier from the one or moreuser-selectable identifiers printed on the paper document. Responsive toreceiving the first signal, the embodiment of the present inventionidentifies a portion of multimedia information stored by the multimediadocument corresponding to the first user-selectable identifier. Theportion of the multimedia information corresponding to the firstuser-selectable identifier is then output using an output device.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, techniques areprovided for using a paper document to access multimedia informationstored in a multimedia document in electronic form, wherein one or moreuser-selectable identifiers are printed on the paper document. Accordingto this embodiment, a first user-selectable identifier can be selectedfrom the one or more user-selectable identifiers printed on the paperdocument. A request can then be made to receive multimedia informationcorresponding to the first user-selectable identifier. In response tothe request, a portion of the multimedia information stored by themultimedia document corresponding to the first user-selectableidentifier is output using an output device.

According to yet another embodiment of the present invention, techniquesare provided for using a paper document to retrieve multimediainformation stored electronically in a multimedia document, wherein afirst plurality of user-selectable identifiers are printed on the paperdocument. According to this embodiment, the present invention receives asignal indicating selection of a second plurality of user-selectableidentifiers from the first plurality of user-selectable identifiersprinted on the paper document, wherein the second plurality ofuser-selectable identifiers is a subset of the first plurality ofuser-selectable identifiers. Responsive to receiving the first signal,the embodiment of the present invention identifies portions ofmultimedia information stored by the multimedia document correspondingto the second plurality of user-selectable identifiers, and outputs theportions of the multimedia information corresponding to the secondplurality of user-selectable identifiers using an output device.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, techniques areprovided for retrieving multimedia information using a first paperdocument and a second paper document, wherein one or moreuser-selectable identifiers are printed on the first paper document andone or more user-selectable identifiers are printed on the second paperdocument. An embodiment of the present invention receives a signalindicating selection of a first user-selectable identifier from the oneor more user-selectable identifiers printed on the first paper document,and indicating selection of a second user-selectable identifier from theone or more user-selectable identifiers printed on the second paperdocument. The embodiment of the present invention identifies a portionof multimedia information corresponding to the first user-selectableidentifier from multimedia information stored by a first multimediadocument, and identifies a portion of multimedia informationcorresponding to the second user-selectable identifier from multimediainformation stored by a second multimedia document. The embodiment ofthe present invention then outputs the portion of multimedia informationstored by the first multimedia document corresponding to the firstuser-selectable identifier and the portion of multimedia informationstored by the second multimedia document corresponding to the seconduser-selectable identifier using an output device.

The foregoing, together with other features, embodiments, and advantagesof the present invention, will become more apparent when referring tothe following specification, claims, and accompanying drawings.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram of a distributed system thatincorporates an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2A depicts a networked system including a multifunction deviceaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 2B depicts a user interface that is displayed to the user by amultifunction device according to an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 3 is a simplified block diagram of a computer system according toan embodiment of the present invention.;

FIG. 4 is a simplified high-level flowchart depicting a method ofgenerating a printable representation of multimedia informationaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 5A and 5B depict a sample template according to an embodiment ofthe present invention;

FIG. 6 is a simplified high-level flowchart depicting processingperformed in step 408 of FIG. 4 according to an embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIG. 7A depicts a page from a multimedia paper generated according to anembodiment of the present invention for a multimedia document;

FIG. 7B depicts a second page that follows the page depicted in FIG. 7Ain a multimedia paper document according to an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 7C depicts a page from a multimedia paper generated according to anembodiment of the present invention for a multimedia document;

FIGS. 8A, 8B, and 8C depict pages from a multimedia paper documentgenerated for a recorded meeting according to an embodiment of thepresent invention;

FIGS. 9A, 9B, and 9C depict pages of a multimedia paper documentdisplaying visual markers to denote various attributes of the audioinformation or of the CC text information included in the multimediainformation for the multimedia document for which the multimedia paperdocument is generated according to an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 10 depicts a page from a multimedia paper document whose contentshave been annotated according to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 11 depicts a user profile that may be configured by a useraccording to an embodiment of the present invention to facilitateselection of keyframes relevant to user-specified topics of interest;

FIG. 12 depicts modules that facilitate selection of keyframes relevantto topics of interest according to an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 13A is a simplified high-level flowchart depicting a method ofaccessing multimedia information using a multimedia paper documentaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 13B is a simplified high-level flowchart depicting a method ofaccessing multimedia information from a particular time point using amultimedia paper document according to an embodiment of the presentinvention;

FIG. 14 is a simplified high-level flowchart depicting a method ofgenerating a single printable representation according to an embodimentof the present invention that includes multimedia information selectedfrom a plurality of multimedia documents by analyzing the printablerepresentations of the plurality of multimedia documents;

FIG. 15 is a simplified high-level flowchart depicting another method ofgenerating a single printable representation that includes informationextracted from a plurality of multimedia documents by analyzing themultimedia information stored by the plurality of multimedia documentsaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIGS. 16A, 16B, 16C, and 16D depict pages of a multimedia paper documentgenerated according an embodiment of the present invention using themethod depicted in FIG. 14;

FIG. 17 depicts a coversheet generated for a multimedia paper documentaccording to an embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 18 depicts a coversheet generated for a multimedia paper documentaccording to another embodiment of the present invention;

FIG. 19 depicts a coversheet generated according to another embodimentof the present invention for a multimedia paper document that has beenannotated based upon user-specified topics of interest;

FIG. 20 depicts a coversheet generated according to an embodiment of thepresent invention for a multimedia paper document that includes pagesselected from multiple multimedia paper documents based upon selectioncriteria;

FIG. 21 depicts another coversheet generated according to an embodimentof the present invention for a multimedia paper document that includespages selected from multiple multimedia paper documents based uponselection criteria; and

FIG. 22 depicts a coversheet generated according to an embodiment of thepresent invention for a multimedia paper document that has beengenerated for a recorded meeting.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION OF THE INVENTION

The present invention provides techniques for generating a printablerepresentation of multimedia information that can be printed on a papermedium to provide a paper-based interface for the multimediainformation. The paper-based interface provided by the present inventionprovides a more readable and comprehensible representation of themultimedia information.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the printablerepresentation for the multimedia information may be annotated toidentify locations of information in the multimedia information that maybe of interest to a user. A paper document generated by printing theannotated printable representation on a paper medium displays theannotations. The annotations provide visual indications of informationrelevant to the user. For example, information printed in the paperdocument that is relevant to topics of interest specified by a user maybe annotated or highlighted. In this manner, the multimedia paperdocument generated according to the teachings of the present inventionprovides a convenient tool that allows a user to readily locate portionsof the paper document that are relevant to the user. Since themultimedia paper document comprises a printable representation ofmultimedia information, the paper document generated according to theteachings of the present invention allows the user to identify portionsof multimedia information that are of interest to the user.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the paper documentgenerated by printing the printable representation on a paper mediumalso provides an interface for accessing or retrieving multimediainformation in electronic form. The paper document may thus be used asan indexing and retrieval tool for retrieving multimedia information.For example, a user may use a paper document generated for a videorecording to access or retrieve portions of the video recording.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the presentinvention provides techniques for generating a single printablerepresentation that includes multimedia information extracted from aplurality of different multimedia documents or multimedia sources.According to an embodiment of the present invention, the singleprintable representation includes multimedia information selected fromthe plurality of multimedia documents based upon selection criteria. Auser may specify the selection criteria. The selection criteria may bebased upon any attributes of the multimedia documents or their contents,or upon user-specified topics of interest, and the like. The single orconsolidated printable representation can then be printed on a papermedium to generate a consolidated paper document comprising informationthat satisfies the selection criteria.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the presentinvention provides techniques for generating a coversheet for a paperdocument generated by printing the printable representation on a papermedium. The coversheet may provide a summary of the contents printed onpages of the paper document.

As described above, the printable representation of the multimediainformation can be printed on a paper medium to generate the paper-basedinterface. The term “paper” or “paper medium” as used in thisapplication is intended to refer to any tangible medium on whichinformation can be printed, written, drawn, imprinted, embossed, etc.For purposes of this invention, the term “printing” is intended toinclude printing, writing, drawing, imprinting, embossing, and the like.For purposes of this invention, the document generated by printing theprintable representation on a paper medium will be referred to as“multimedia paper” or “multimedia paper document.” The multimedia paperdocument takes advantage of the high resolution and portability of paperand provides a readable representation of the multimedia information.According to the teachings of the present invention, a multimedia paperdocument may also be used to select, retrieve, and access the multimediainformation.

The multimedia information for which the multimedia paper document isgenerated may be stored in an electronic multimedia document.Accordingly, the term “multimedia document” is intended to refer to anystorage unit (e.g., a file) that stores multimedia information indigital format. Various different formats may be used to store themultimedia information. These formats include various MPEG formats(e.g., MPEG 1, MPEG 2, MPEG 4, MPEG 7, etc.), MP3 format, SMIL format,HTML+TIME format, WMF (Windows Media Format), RM (Real Media) format,Quicktime format, Shockwave format, various streaming media formats,formats being developed by the engineering community, proprietary andcustomary formats, and others. Examples of multimedia documents includevideo recordings, MPEG files, news broadcast recordings, presentationrecordings, recorded meetings, classroom lecture recordings, broadcasttelevision programs, and the like.

As previously described, multimedia information comprises information ofdifferent types in an integrated form. For example, multimediainformation may comprise a combination of text, graphics, animation,sound (audio), and/or video information in an integrated form. Forexample, a video recording of a television broadcast may comprise videoinformation and audio information. In certain instances the videorecording may also comprise close-captioned (CC) text information whichcomprises material related to the video information, and in many cases,is an exact representation of the speech contained in the audio portionsof the video recording. As another example, a recording of apresentation may store information captured during a presentationincluding video information, audio information, CC text information,information corresponding to slides presented during the presentation,whiteboard information, and other types of information. As describedbelow, the present invention generates a printable representation of themultimedia information that includes printable representations of thevarious types of information included in the multimedia information. Theprintable representation of the multimedia document can then be printedon a paper medium to generate a multimedia paper or multimedia paperdocument for the multimedia information stored by the multimediadocument.

Generating Printable Representation of Multimedia Information

As described above, according to an embodiment of the present invention,techniques are provided for generating a printable representation ofmultimedia information that can be printed on a paper medium to producea multimedia paper document. The multimedia paper document provides apaper-based interface for the user to view and comprehend the multimediainformation. FIG. 1 is a simplified block diagram of a distributedsystem 100 that might incorporate an embodiment of the presentinvention. As depicted in FIG. 1, distributed system 100 comprises anumber of devices or computer systems including one or more user systems102, a multimedia information processing server system (MIPSS) 104, amultimedia information source (MIS) 106, and a multimedia paper outputdevice 108 coupled to communication network 110 via a plurality ofcommunication links. It should be apparent that distributed system 100depicted in FIG. 1 is merely illustrative of an embodiment incorporatingthe present invention and does not limit the scope of the invention asrecited in the claims. One of ordinary skill in the art would recognizeother variations, modifications, and alternatives. For example, inalternative embodiments of the present invention, one or more of thesystems depicted in FIG. 1 (e.g., MIPSS 104 and output device 108) maybe incorporated into a single system. In other alternative embodiments,the present invention may also be embodied in a stand-alone system, andthe like.

Communication network 110 provides a mechanism allowing the variousdevices and computer systems depicted in FIG. 1 to communicate andexchange data and information with each other. Communication network 110may itself be comprised of many interconnected computer systems andcommunication links. While in one embodiment, communication network 110is the Internet, in other embodiments, communication network 110 may beany suitable communication network including a local area network (LAN),a wide area network (WAN), a wireless network, an intranet, a privatenetwork, a public network, a switched network, and the like.

The communication links used to connect the various systems depicted inFIG. 1 may be of various types including hardwire links, optical links,satellite or other wireless communications links, wave propagationlinks, or any other mechanisms for communication of information. Variouscommunication protocols may be used to facilitate communication ofinformation via the communication links. These communication protocolsmay include TCP/IP, HTTP protocols, extensible markup language (XML),wireless application protocol (WAP), protocols under development byindustry standard organizations, vendor-specific protocols, customizedprotocols, and others.

According to the teachings of the present invention, MIPSS 104 isconfigured to perform processing to facilitate generation of a printablerepresentation of the multimedia information. The printablerepresentation generated by MIPSS 104 for a multimedia document mayinclude printable representations of the various types of informationincluded in the multimedia information stored by the multimediadocument. The printable representation generated by MIPSS 104 may beprinted on a paper medium to generate a multimedia paper document. Theprocessing performed by MIPSS 104 to generate a printable representationof the multimedia information may be implemented by software modulesexecuting on MIPSS 104, by hardware modules coupled to MIPSS 104, orcombinations thereof. According to alternative embodiments of thepresent invention, the processing may also be distributed between othercomputer systems and devices depicted in FIG. 1.

The multimedia information for which MIPSS 104 generates a printablerepresentation may be stored in a multimedia document accessible toMIPSS 104. For example, the multimedia document may be stored by MIPSS104 or may alternatively be stored in locations accessible to MIPSS 104.

In alternative embodiments of the present invention, instead of beingstored in a multimedia document, MIPSS 104 may receive a stream ofmultimedia information (e.g., a streaming media signal, a cable signal,etc.) from a multimedia information source such as MIS 106. Examples ofMIS 106 include a television broadcast receiver, a cable receiver, aTIVO box, and the like. MIPSS 104 may receive the multimedia informationdirectly from MIS 106 or may alternatively receive the information via acommunication network such as communication network 106. MIPSS 104 maythen store the multimedia information received from MIS 106 in the formof a multimedia document and use the stored information to generate theprintable representation of the multimedia information.

After generating the printable representation of the multimediainformation, MIPSS 104 may communicate the printable representation tooutput device 108 that is capable of generating a multimedia paperdocument by printing the printable representation on a paper medium. Inone embodiment, MIPSS 104 may itself be configured to generate amultimedia paper document from the printable representation of themultimedia information. In alternative embodiments, the printablerepresentation generated by MIPSS 104 may be stored for later use.

As described above, multimedia information source (MIS) 106 represents asource of multimedia information. According to an embodiment of thepresent invention, MIS 106 may store multimedia documents that areaccessed by MIPSS 104. In alternative embodiments, MIS 106 may provide amultimedia information stream to MIPSS 104. For example, MIS 106 may bea television receiver/antenna providing live television feed informationto MIPSS 104. MIS 106 may be a video recorder providing the recordedvideo and/or audio stream to MIPSS 104. In alternative embodiments, MIS106 may be a presentation or meeting recorder device that is capable ofproviding a stream of the captured presentation or meeting informationto MIPSS 104. MIS 106 may also be a receiver (e.g., a satellite dish ora cable receiver) that is configured to capture or receive (e.g., via awireless link) multimedia information from an external source and thenprovide the captured multimedia information to MIPSS 104 for furtherprocessing.

Users may use user systems 102 to interact with the other systemsdepicted in FIG. 1. For example, a user may use user system 102 toselect one or more multimedia documents and request MIPSS 104 togenerate multimedia papers for the selected documents. Users may alsouse user systems 102 to view digital versions of the multimediadocuments. For example, multimedia players executing on a user systemmay play multimedia information stored by a multimedia document. A usersystem 102 may be of different types including a personal computer, aportable computer, a workstation, a computer terminal, a networkcomputer, a mainframe, a kiosk, a personal digital assistant (PDA), acommunication device such as a cell phone, or any other data processingsystem.

Output device 108 is capable of generating a multimedia paper documentbased upon the printable representation of the multimedia informationreceived from MIPSS 104. Accordingly, output device 108 represents anydevice that is capable of outputting (e.g., printing, writing, drawing,imprinting, embossing, etc.) the printable representation of themultimedia information on a paper medium. For example, output device 108may be a printer that is coupled to MIPSS 104. The printer may beconfigured to receive a signal from MIPSS 104 including a printablerepresentation of multimedia information from MIPSS 104, and to generatea multimedia paper document based upon the printable representation ofthe multimedia information.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, output device 108may be incorporated as part of a multi-function device (or MFD) that iscapable of performing a plurality of different functions in addition toallowing users to generate multimedia paper documents. For example, aMFD may allow users to copy, fax, or scan documents including multimediapaper documents. A MFD may also allow users to perform other functions.A MFD may also allow users to select multimedia documents for whichprintable representations are to be generated according to the teachingsof the present invention. For example, a MFD may provide a userinterface that allows a user to select one or more multimedia documents,request generation of printable representations for the selectedmultimedia documents, generate multimedia paper documents for theselected multimedia documents, and perform other functions such ascopying, faxing, etc. on the printable representations or on themultimedia papers.

FIG. 2A depicts a networked system including a MFD 200 according to anembodiment of the present invention. In the embodiment depicted in FIG.2A, MFD 200 is coupled to MIPSS 104 that in turn is coupled to MIS 106.In the embodiment depicted in FIG. 2A, MIS 106 is a satellite dish or TVantenna that receives and provides multimedia information to MIPSS 104.MIPSS 104 generates a printable representation for the multimediainformation. The printable representation may be forwarded to MFD 200 ormay alternatively be stored by MIPSS 104.

In the embodiment depicted in FIG. 2A, MFD 200 provides a user interface202 that can be used by users to provide instructions or commands to MFD200 and to view information output by MFD 200. Interface 202 comprisesan area 204 that displays a list of documents 204-a including multimediadocuments that can be selected by a user. The multimedia documentsdisplayed in area 204 may be stored by MFD 200 or may be stored by otherdevices (such as MIPSS 104) coupled to MFD 200. In alternativeembodiments, area 204 may display a list of documents accessible toMIPSS 104. The multimedia documents displayed in area 204 may correspondto television broadcast recordings, video clips, recorded meetings, etc.

Area 204 may also display various details about the multimedia documentsthat are listed. In the embodiment depicted in FIG. 2A, for eachmultimedia document listed in area 204, the information displayed inarea 204 includes information related to the date 204-c and time 204-bof the multimedia document recording. If a printable representation hasalready been generated for a multimedia document, the number of pages204-d needed to print the printable representation (i.e., the number ofpages in the multimedia paper document for the multimedia document) arealso displayed. For example, the multimedia document titled “CNN/fn”stores a recording that was recorded on May 21, 2001 between 11:01 AMand 1:00 PM. A printable representation has been generated for the“CNN/fn” multimedia document and comprises 26 pages.

A user may select one or more documents displayed in area 204 using aninput device of MFD 104. In the embodiment depicted in FIG. 2A, the usermay select a document by clicking on the document name in area 204 oralternatively by using “Select” button 206. For example, as shown inFIG. 2A, the user has selected a multimedia document titled “NewsHour”which corresponds to a news broadcast recorded on May 18, 2001 between6:00-7:00 PM. The user may then request MFD 200 to perform one or morefunctions provided by MFD 200 on the selected document(s). According toan embodiment of the present invention, the user may request generationof printable representations for the selected multimedia documents ormay request generation of multimedia paper documents for the selectedmultimedia documents. The multimedia documents displayed in area 204 mayalso be indexed by MFD 200 that allows a user to perform familiaroperations such as keyword searching, browsing for similar documents,etc. on the selected multimedia documents.

User interface 202 provides a plurality of user interface features thatallow a user to specify functions or operations to be performed on theselected document(s).

For example, the user may select “Print” button 208 to instruct MFD 200to print multimedia paper documents 210 for the multimedia documentsselected by the user in area 204.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, upon receiving asignal indicating selection of “Print” button 206 by a user, MFD 200sends a signal to MIPSS 104 requesting generation of printablerepresentations for the user-selected multimedia documents. If printablerepresentations for the user-selected documents already exist, MIPSS 104communicates the previously generated printable representations for theuser-selected documents to MFD 200. Alternatively, if the printablerepresentations do not exist, MIPSS 104 generates printablerepresentations for the one or more user-selected documents and thenprovides the printable representations to MFD 200. MFD 200 may thengenerate (or print) multimedia paper documents for the user-selecteddocuments based upon printable representations corresponding to thedocuments received from MIPSS 104. In alternative embodiments, MFD 200may itself be configured to generate printable representations foruser-selected multimedia documents.

User interface 202 also provides a “Play” button 212 which when selectedby a user causes MFD 200 to playback multimedia information from theuser-selected multimedia document(s). For example, FIG. 2B depicts auser interface 214 that is displayed to the user upon selection of“Play” button 212 according to an embodiment of the present invention.Interface 214 allows the user to play back video and audio informationcontained in the “NewsHour” multimedia document selected by the user inarea 204 of FIG. 2A. If MFD 200 is connected to one or more outputdevices (e.g., an output monitor, other networked output devices), theuser may also select the output device to be used for the playback. Forexample, the user may indicate that the information is to be played backon the user's computer in the user's office (or on a television in aparticular conference room, etc.). In specific embodiments of thepresent invention, the user may also indicate the time when themultimedia information is to be played back.

Referring back to FIG. 2A, user interface 202 also provides a numerickeypad 216 that facilitates operations such as faxing of documents. Forexample, using keypad 216, a user may fax a multimedia paper document ora printable representation of a user-selected multimedia document to arecipient. The user may also make copies of the multimedia paperdocument by selecting “Copy” button 218. “Cancel” button 220 allows theuser to cancel a pre-selected function.

It should be apparent that MFD 200 and the user interfaces depicted inFIGS. 2A and 2B are merely illustrative of an embodiment incorporatingthe present invention and do not limit the scope of the invention asrecited in the claims. One of ordinary skill in the art would recognizeother variations, modifications, and alternatives. For example, in anetworked environment, a web browser-enabled interface may be providedallowing a user to control the functions of MFD 200 from a remotelocation, for example, using the user's computer system or PDA, and thelike.

FIG. 3 is a simplified block diagram of a computer system 300 accordingto an embodiment of the present invention. Computer system 300 may beused as any of the computer systems depicted in FIG. 1. As shown in FIG.3, computer system 300 includes at least one processor 302 thatcommunicates with a number of peripheral devices via a bus subsystem304. These peripheral devices may include a storage subsystem 306,comprising a memory subsystem 308 and a file storage subsystem 310, userinterface input devices 312, user interface output devices 314, and anetwork interface subsystem 316. The input and output devices allow userinteraction with computer system 300. A user may be a human user, adevice, a process, another computer, and the like. Network interfacesubsystem 316 provides an interface to other computer systems andcommunication networks including communication network 110.

Bus subsystem 304 provides a mechanism for letting the variouscomponents and subsystems of computer system 300 communicate with eachother as intended. The various subsystems and components of computersystem 300 need not be at the same physical location but may bedistributed at various locations within network 100.

Although bus subsystem 304 is shown schematically as a single bus,alternative embodiments of the bus subsystem may utilize multiple buses.

User interface input devices 312 may include a keyboard, pointingdevices, a mouse, trackball, touchpad, a graphics tablet, a scanner, abarcode scanner, a touchscreen incorporated into the display, audioinput devices such as voice recognition systems, microphones, and othertypes of input devices. In general, use of the term “input device” isintended to include all possible types of devices and ways to inputinformation using computer system 300.

User interface output devices 314 may include a display subsystem, aprinter, a fax machine, or non-visual displays such as audio outputdevices. The display subsystem may be a cathode ray tube (CRT), aflat-panel device such as a liquid crystal display (LCD), or aprojection device. In general, use of the term “output device” isintended to include all possible types of devices and ways to outputinformation from computer system 300.

Storage subsystem 306 may be configured to store the basic programmingand data constructs that provide the functionality of the computersystem and of the present invention. For example, according to anembodiment of the present invention, software modules implementing thefunctionality of the present invention may be stored in storagesubsystem 306 of MIPSS 104. For example, software modules thatfacilitate generation of printable representations of the multimediainformation may be stored in storage subsystem 306 of MIPSS 104. Thesesoftware modules may be executed by processor(s) 302 of MIPSS 104. In adistributed environment, the software modules may be stored on aplurality of computer systems and executed by processors of theplurality of computer systems. Storage subsystem 306 may also provide arepository for storing various databases and files that may be used bythe present invention. For example, the multimedia documents may bestored in storage subsystem 306. Storage subsystem 306 may comprisememory subsystem 308 and file storage subsystem 310.

Memory subsystem 308 may include a number of memories including a mainrandom access memory (RAM) 318 for storage of instructions and dataduring program execution and a read only memory (ROM) 320 in which fixedinstructions are stored. File storage subsystem 310 provides persistent(non-volatile) storage for program and data files, and may include ahard disk drive, a floppy disk drive along with associated removablemedia, a Compact Digital Read Only Memory (CD-ROM) drive, an opticaldrive, removable media cartridges, and other like storage media. One ormore of the drives may be located at remote locations on other connectedcomputers.

Computer system 300 itself can be of varying types including a personalcomputer, a portable computer, a workstation, a computer terminal, anetwork computer, a mainframe, a kiosk, a personal digital assistant(PDA), a communication device such as a cell phone, a game controller,or any other data processing system. Due to the ever-changing nature ofcomputers and networks, the description of computer system 300 depictedin FIG. 3 is intended only as a specific example for purposes ofillustrating the preferred embodiment of the computer system. Many otherconfigurations of a computer system are possible having more or fewercomponents than the computer system depicted in FIG. 3. For example,several other subsystems may be included in computer system 300depending upon the functions performed by system 300.

FIG. 4 is a simplified high-level flowchart 400 depicting a method ofgenerating a printable representation of multimedia informationaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. The processingdepicted in FIG. 4 may performed by MIPSS 104 (e.g., by software modulesexecuting on MIPSS 104). In alternative embodiments of the presentinvention, the processing may be distributed among the various systemsdepicted in FIG. 1. Flowchart 400 depicted in FIG. 4 is merelyillustrative of an embodiment incorporating the present invention anddoes not limit the scope of the invention as recited in the claims. Oneof ordinary skill in the art would recognize other variations,modifications, and alternatives.

As depicted in FIG. 4, according to an embodiment of the presentinvention, the method is initiated when MIPSS 104 receives a signalrequesting generation of a printable representation for a multimediadocument storing multimedia information (step 402). Alternatively, thesignal received in step 402 may request generation of a multimedia paperdocument for a multimedia document. MIPSS 104 may receive the signalfrom a variety of different sources including a user system 102, a MFD200, from an interface provided by MIPSS 104, from MIS 106, and thelike. The signal may identify the multimedia document for which aprintable representation is to be generated.

In alternative embodiments of the present invention, the signal receivedin step 402 may comprise a stream of multimedia information (e.g., fromMIS 106) for which a printable representation (or multimedia paperdocument) is to be generated. If the signal includes a multimediainformation stream, MIPSS 104 may store the stream in a multimediadocument and then generate a printable representation for the document.For purposes of explaining the processing in FIG. 4, it is assumed thatthe signal received in step 402 identifies a multimedia document forwhich a printable representation is to be generated.

MIPSS 104 then accesses the multimedia document identified by the signalreceived in step 402 (step 404). The multimedia document identified bythe signal received in step 402 may be stored by MIPSS 104 or mayalternatively be stored by other devices or systems from where it can beaccessed by MIPSS 104. In alternative embodiments of the presentinvention, the signal received in step 402 may itself comprise themultimedia document.

MIPSS 104 then determines layout and format information to be used forgenerating the printable representation (step 406). The layout andformat information specifies how the information is to be printed on thepaper medium. For example, the layout and format information maycomprise information identifying the paper-medium and size of the paper(e.g., letter size. legal size, A4 size, etc.) for which the printablerepresentation is to be generated. The layout and format information mayalso identify special features of the paper (e.g., a paper with aletterhead, paper of a particular color, etc.) for which the printablerepresentation is to be generated. In specific embodiments of thepresent invention, a default paper medium (e.g., letter size paper) maybe selected for generating the printable representation of themultimedia document.

Additionally, the layout and format information indicates the layout andformatting features to be used for generating the printablerepresentation of the multimedia information. For example, according toan embodiment of the present invention, the layout and formatinformation specifies how each type of information (e.g., audio, video,images, text, etc.) included in the multimedia information is to beprinted. For example, for each type of information included in themultimedia information, the layout and format information may identifythe area (or location or section of the paper medium) on the papermedium in which the information is to be printed, and the format orstyles (e.g., font type, font size, bolding, underlining, number ofcolumns per page, size of the columns, page margins, etc.) to be usedfor printing the information. In embodiments of the present inventionwhich support multiple languages, the layout and format information mayalso indicate the language (or languages) to be used for printing theinformation. MIPSS 104 uses the layout and format information togenerate the printable representation.

For example for text information (e.g., CC text, text transcript ofaudio information) included in the multimedia information, the layoutand format information may specify the font type and font size to beused for printing the text information, the number of columns to be usedfor printing the information, the size and location of the columns, thecolor of the font to be used for printing (which may depend on the colorof the paper for which the printable representation is to be generated),line spacing, length of each line, number of words per line, bolding andcapitalization techniques, and the like. The layout and formatinformation may also identify the language to be used for printing thetext information. For example, the layout and format information mayindicate that the text is to be printed in two columns on each page withthe English version in the first column and a Japanese translation ofthe English version in the second column.

For audio information, the layout and format information may identifytechniques to be used for converting the audio information to textinformation (i.e., techniques for generating a text transcript for theaudio information), the format and styles for printing the audiotranscript (which may be the same as for printing text information), andthe like. For video information, the layout and format information mayindicate how the video information is to be represented on paper.According to an embodiment of the present invention, the printablerepresentation of the video information includes keyframes that areextracted from the video information. In this embodiment, the layout andformat information may specify the sampling rate for extracting thekeyframes, the number of keyframes that are to be extracted from thevideo information, the order and placement of the keyframes on the papermedium, and other like information.

Likewise, for other types of information included in the multimediainformation, the layout and format information specifies the manner inwhich the multimedia information is to be printed on the paper medium.Accordingly, the layout and format information specifies how printablerepresentations are to be generated for each type of informationincluded in the multimedia information stored by the multimediadocument.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the layout andformat information is stored in the form of templates. The templates maybe customized for a particular type of paper. For example, a firsttemplate may be defined for letter size paper and a second templatedifferent from the first template may be defined for A4 size paper. Itshould be apparent that one or more templates may be defined for eachtype and size of paper. If multiple templates are provided, the user maybe allowed to select a particular template to be used for generating theprintable representation. According to an embodiment of the presentinvention, information identifying a user-selected template may beincluded in the signal received in step 402. Default templates may alsobe specified. The user may also be allowed to create new templates, andto edit and modify previously configured templates. In this manner, thelayout and format information is user-configurable.

The goal of a template (or layout and format information in general) isto generate a printable representation which when printed on a papermedium generates a readable and comprehensible multimedia paperdocument. In order to create a readable version, the templates mayadhere to many of the basic guidelines designed and used by thenewspaper industry. For instance, the use of special fonts, multiplecolumns and shorter lines of text along with line spacing, bolding andcapitalization techniques, and other type-setting features used by thenewspaper industry may be specified in the templates. The layout andformat information thus contributes towards making the multimedia paperdocument more readable and comprehensible.

FIGS. 5A and 5B depict a sample template according to an embodiment ofthe present invention. The template is defined using XML syntax butcould easily be represented in other ways. The template is designed foruse with letter-size (8.5×11 inch) sheets of white 24-lb. paper. Asdefined in the template, each sheet is configured to contain one titlezone, two text zones, and a video zone. The title zone specifies thezone or area of the paper medium where the title is to be printed andthe manner in which the title is to be printed. The first text zonespecifies the zone or area or section of the paper medium where the CCtext included in the multimedia information is to be printed and themanner in which the CC text is to be printed. The second text zonespecifies the zone or section of the paper medium where the Japanesetranslation of the CC text is to be printed and the manner in which theJapanese text is to be printed. It should be apparent that inalternative embodiments of the present invention, CC text included inthe multimedia information and which is a continuation of theinformation printed in the first text zone may be printed in the secondtext zone. The video zone specifies the zone or area of the paper mediumwhere the video information included in the multimedia document is to beprinted and the manner in which the video is to be printed.

The template information in FIG. 5A specifies that the title zone(identified by “ZONE_ID 0”) area is bounded by a rectangle whose leftedge is located at a distance of 3 inches from the left margin of thepage and whose right edge is located at a distance of 3 inches from theright margin of the page (i.e., the rectangle is 2.5 inches wide). Thetop edge of the title zone rectangle is located 0.75 inches from the topmargin of the page and the bottom edge of the rectangle is located 9.6inches from the bottom margin of the page (i.e., the rectangle is 0.65inches high). The text in the title zone is configured to be English andis to be extracted from the header of the video clip. The title isconfigured to be printed in a 14 point, black Times font, and iscentered within the title zone. The lines are to be single-spaced.

The first text zone (identified by “ZONE_ID 1”) is also bounded by arectangle whose left edge is located at a distance of 1.1 inches fromthe left margin of the page, whose right edge is located at a distanceof 5.4 inches from the right margin of the page, whose top edge islocated 1.5 inches from the top margin of the page, and whose bottomedge is located 1.0 inch from the bottom margin of the page. The text inthe first text zone is to be printed in the English language. The originof the text to be printed is defined to be CC text included in themultimedia information. The text is to be printed in a black 10 pointGaramond font. Lines are to be single-spaced. Subject changes in theclosed caption (which are usually indicated in the CC text by threegreater-than signs “>>>”) are to be shown by inserting a 1.5 line breakand by bolding the first three words. Speaker changes (which are usuallyindicated in CC text by two greater-than signs “>>”) are to be shownwith a single-line break with no emphasis. Annotations (that indicatewords in the transcript that occur in a user's profile) (described belowin more detail) are to be shown with italicized text and blueunderlining.

The second text zone (identified by “ZONE_ID 2”) is also bounded by arectangle whose left edge is located at a distance of 4.6 inches fromthe left margin of the page, whose right edge is located at a distanceof 1.9 inches from the right margin of the page, whose top edge islocated 1.5 inches from the top margin of the page, and whose bottomedge is located 1.0 inch from the bottom margin of the page. Unlike thefirst zone, the text in the second text zone is to be printed inJapanese. A translation source to facilitate the translation to Japaneseis identified. The text is to be printed in a black 10 pointAsianGaramond font. Lines are to be single-spaced. Subject changes inthe closed caption text (which are usually indicated in CC text by threegreater-than signs “>>>”) are to be shown by inserting a 1.5 line breakand by bolding the first three words. Speaker changes (which are usuallyindicated in CC text by two greater-than signs “>>”) are to be shownwith a single-line break with no emphasis. Annotations to words orphrases are to be shown with italicized text and blue underlining.Further details related to annotations are provided below.

The video zone (identified by “ZONE_ID 3”) is also bounded by arectangle whose left edge is located at a distance of 3.2 inches fromthe left margin of the page, whose right edge is located at a distanceof 4.5 inches from the right margin of the page, whose top edge islocated 1.5 inches from the top margin of the page, and whose bottomedge is located 1.0 inch from the bottom margin of the page. The sourcefor the displayed data in the video zone is to be a set of keyframesthat are generated by sampling the video channel of the multimediainformation at a rate of 1 frame per second. Text in those frames is tobe annotated by drawing a red box around it with line-width of 3-points.The keyframes are to be divided into sets of four. Each set is to be 0.4inches wide and 0.3 inches high. The keyframes from each set are to belaid out within the video zone by sequentially packing them into theavailable space. Each group of four keyframes is to be annotated with aninterleaved 2-of-5 barcode 0.8 inches wide and 0.15 inches high thatappears underneath the group.

It should be apparent that the template depicted in FIGS. 5A and 5B ismerely illustrative of an embodiment incorporating the present inventionand does not limit the scope of the invention as recited in the claims.One of ordinary skill in the art would recognize other variations,modifications, and alternatives.

Referring back to FIG. 4, MIPSS 104 then generates a printablerepresentation of the multimedia information stored in the multimediadocument accessed in step 402 based upon the layout and formatinformation determined in step 406 (step 408). Generating a printablerepresentation for the multimedia document involves generating aprintable representation for each type of information included in themultimedia information based upon the layout and format information.

If the signal received in step 402 requested generation of a multimediapaper document, MIPSS 104 may then print the printable representation ofthe multimedia information to generate the multimedia paper document(step 410). Alternatively, MIPSS 104 may communicate the printablerepresentation of the multimedia information generated in step 408 to anoutput device 108 (e.g., a printer, a MFD, etc.) that is configured togenerate the multimedia paper document (step 412). Other operations mayalso be performed on the printable representation of the multimediainformation (step 414). For example, the printable representation may bestored for future generation of multimedia paper document, theinformation may be faxed, the information may be searched, indexed,annotated, etc., and the like.

FIG. 6 is a simplified high-level flowchart depicting processingperformed in step 408 of FIG. 4 according to an embodiment of thepresent invention. The processing depicted in FIG. 6 may be performed bysoftware modules executing on MIPSS 104, by hardware modules coupled toMIPSS 104, or a combination thereof. In alternative embodiments of thepresent invention, the processing may be distributed among the varioussystems depicted in FIG. 1. The processing depicted in FIG. 6 is merelyillustrative of an embodiment incorporating the present invention anddoes not limit the scope of the invention as recited in the claims. Oneof ordinary skill in the art would recognize other variations,modifications, and alternatives.

As described above, in step 408 MIPSS 104 generates a printablerepresentation of the multimedia information based upon the layout andformat information determined in step 406. As part of the processingperformed in step 408, MIPSS 104 divides or indexes the multimediainformation contained by the multimedia document into sequentialsegments or portions of a particular time length (step 602). Eachsegment is characterized by a starting time and an ending time. Eachsegment comprises multimedia information occurring between the startingtime and ending time associated with the segment. In other words, eachsegment or section comprises multimedia information for a specific timeperiod. A sequential list of segments represents the entire multimediainformation stored in the multimedia document. For example, according toan embodiment of the present invention, a 10-second time period may beused for segmenting the multimedia information. Using the 10-second timeperiod value, a 5-minute video recording may be divided into 30 segmentsor sections. The first segment comprises multimedia information for thefirst 10 seconds of the multimedia document, the second segmentcomprises multimedia information for the next 10 seconds, the thirdsegment comprises multimedia information for the next 10 seconds, and soon. The value of the time period to be used for segmenting themultimedia document may be user-configurable.

From the segments generated in step 602, MIPSS 104 then selects a set ofsegments or portions of the multimedia document comprising multimediainformation that is to be included in the printable representation ofthe multimedia information (step 604). According to an embodiment of thepresent invention, all the segments generated in step 602 are selectedto be included in the printable representation. According to otherembodiments of the present invention, a subset of the segments generatedin step 602 may be selected for inclusion in the printablerepresentation of the multimedia information based upon some selectioncriteria. The selection criteria may be user configurable.

According to one such embodiment, MIPSS 104 may compare multimediainformation stored by successive segments and only select those segmentsfor inclusion in the printable representation that contain additionalinformation relative to their preceding segment. In this manner,segments comprising repetitive or redundant information are not selectedfor inclusion in the printable representation. For example, there may beperiods of time within a video recording wherein the audio or videocontent information does not change (e.g., during a period of “silence”or “blankness” on the video recording). Segments comprising multimediainformation corresponding to such periods of time may not be selected byMIPSS 104 in step 604.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, MIPSS 104 mayselect only those segments for inclusion in the printable representationthat contain information relevant to the user who has requestedgeneration of the printable representation. For example, MIPSS 104 mayselect only those segments for inclusion in the printable representationthat contain multimedia information related to user-specified topics ofinterest (which may be specified in a user profile). For example, a usermay have specified an interest in all information related to topic“Afghanistan.” In this embodiment, MIPSS 104 may scan the multimediainformation contained by the various segments and select only thosesegments for inclusion in the printable representation that containinformation related to Afghanistan. Various techniques known to thoseskilled in the art may be used to facilitate selection of the segmentsbased upon their content and their relevance to user-specified topics.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, MIPSS 104 mayapply a summarization technique to select segments to be included in theprintable representation. Applying the summarization technique, onlythose segments that satisfy some selection criteria may be selected forinclusion in the printable representation. For example, for a multimediadocument corresponding to an audio recording, MIPSS 104 may only selectthose segments for inclusion that contain the first sentence spoken byeach speaker (or alternatively segments that contain the first line ofeach paragraph of CC text). This reduces the size of the printablerepresentation and as a result reduces the number of pages needed toprint the printable representation. Various other techniques known tothose of skill in the art may also be used to determine which segmentsare to be included in the printable representation of the multimediainformation.

MIPSS 104 then paginates the segments (i.e., determines on which page aparticular segment is to be printed) selected in step 604 (step 606).According to an embodiment of the present invention, for each pagestarting with the first page, MIPSS 104 determines the segments to beprinted on the page based upon the layout and format information whichinfluences the amount of information that can be printed on a page. Inthis manner, MIPSS 104 determines the amount of multimedia informationto be printed on each page and the total number of pages required toprint the multimedia information stored in the multimedia document. Foreach page, MIPSS 104 determines the start time for information printedon the page (corresponding to the start time of the first segmentprinted on the page) and the end time for information printed on thepage (corresponding to the end time of the last segment printed on thepage).

The number of segments that can be printed on a particular page isinfluenced by the layout and format information and the contents of thesegments. The size of the contents of each segment is in turn influencedby the time period used for segmenting the multimedia information storedin the multimedia document. For example, the amount of informationstored by a segment is generally directly proportional to the value ofthe time period used for segmenting the multimedia document.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, for a giventemplate storing the layout and format information and for a particularsegmentation time period, the number of segments printed on a particularpage is fixed for each page of the multimedia paper document. Forexample, based upon a particular template and a particular time periodused for segmenting the multimedia information, MIPSS 104 may determinethat multimedia information corresponding to “M” segments (where M>0)can be printed on each page of the multimedia paper document. Based uponthis segments-per-page value, MIPSS 104 may then determine the totalnumber of pages in the multimedia paper document and the segments to beprinted on each page.

For example, for a 5-minute video recording which is divided into 30segments using a 10-second segmentation value, and assuming that allsegments are selected for inclusion in the printable representation instep 604, MIPSS 104 may determine that multimedia informationcorresponding to 12 segments will be printed per page of the multimediapaper document. Using this segments-per-page value, MIPSS 104 maydetermine that 3 pages$( {\lceil \frac{30}{12} \rceil = 3} )$will be needed to print the multimedia information (i.e., the multimediapaper document will contain 3 pages). Multimedia informationcorresponding to segments 1-12 will be printed on the first page of themultimedia paper document, multimedia information corresponding tosegments 13-24 will be printed on the second page of the multimediapaper document, and multimedia information corresponding to segments25-30 will be printed on the last or third page of the multimedia paperdocument.

In alternative embodiments of the present invention, the number ofsegments printed on a particular page may vary from page to page of themultimedia paper document based upon the contents of the segments. Inthis embodiment, the number of segments to be printed on a particularpage is influenced by the type and contents of multimedia informationcontained in the segments selected in step 604. In this embodiment, foreach page, starting with the first page of the multimedia paperdocument, MIPSS 104 determines the number of selected segments (startingwith the segment having the earliest starting time) which can be printedon each page. In this manner the number of segments that can be printedon a page are determined on a sequential page-per-page basis startingwith the first page.

For example, for a 5-minute video recording which is divided into 30segments using a 10-second segmentation value and assuming that all thesegments are selected for inclusion in step 604, MIPSS 104 may determinethat multimedia information corresponding to segments 1-10 can beprinted on the first page, multimedia information corresponding tosegments 11-25 can be printed on the second page of the multimedia paperdocument, and multimedia information corresponding to sections 25-30 canbe printed on the third page of the multimedia paper document.Accordingly, in this embodiment of the present invention, the number ofsegments printed on each page of the multimedia document may vary frompage to page based upon the contents of the segments to be printed.Various other techniques may also be used to determine how the selectedsegments will be printed.

MIPSS 104 then generates a printable representation for each pagedetermined in step 606 based upon the layout and format information(step 608). As part of step 608, for each page, MIPSS 104 determinessegments associated with that page, and generates printablerepresentations for the various types of information included in themultimedia information corresponding to the segments. Various differenttechniques may be used by MIPSS 104 to generate printable representationfor the various types of information included in the multimediainformation.

For example, for CC text information included in the multimediainformation, MIPSS 104 may apply the formatting styles specified by thelayout and format information. For audio information, MIPSS 104 maygenerate a text transcript for the audio information by applyingaudio-to-text conversion techniques (which may also be specified in thelayout and format information) and then apply the text formatting. Forvideo information, MIPSS 104 may apply various keyframe extractiontechniques (which may be specified in the layout and format information)to extract keyframes from the video information included in the selectedsegments of the multimedia information. According to an embodiment ofthe present invention, MIPSS 104 extracts keyframes that capture salientfeatures of the video information (or keyframes that are informative)for a particular segment of the multimedia information. For example,images of faces are often quite informative. In choosing keyframes for anews broadcast, MIPSS 104 may select keyframes whose contents aredifferent from the anchorperson. This increases the information conveyedby the keyframes.

Several other techniques known to those of skill in the art may also beapplied by MIPSS 104 to generate a printable representation for themultimedia information. For example, the article “Key frame selection torepresent a video,” written by Frederic Dufaux and published in theProceedings of the International Conference on Image Processing,Vancouver, 2000, describes techniques for selecting keyframes forrepresenting a video. The entire contents of this article are hereinincorporated by reference in their entirety for all purposes.

The printable representation of the multimedia information generated byMIPSS in step 408 may then be printed to generate a multimedia paperdocument, communicated to a device capable of generating a multimediapaper document, or subjected to other operations according to step 410,412, or 414 depicted in FIG. 4.

FIG. 7A depicts a page 700 from a multimedia paper generated accordingto an embodiment of the present invention for a multimedia document. Inthe embodiment depicted in FIG. 7A, the multimedia document correspondsto a television broadcast recording. As depicted in FIG. 7A, page 700comprises a title section 702, a first text section 704, a second textsection 706, a video section 708, and a controls section 710.

Page 700 depicted in FIG. 7A is merely illustrative of a multimediapaper document page according to an embodiment of the present inventionand does not limit the scope of the invention as recited in the claims.One of ordinary skill in the art would recognize other variations,modifications, and alternatives.

Page 700 depicted in FIG. 7A is imprinted with multimedia informationcorresponding to ten segments. According to an embodiment of the presentinvention, identifiers 712 identifying the segments are displayed intext sections 702 and 704, and in video section 708. The segmentidentifiers are printed proximally close to information corresponding tothe respective segments. Page 700 also displays time span information714 that indicates the start time and end time corresponding toinformation printed on page 700.

For example, the information printed on page 700 represents multimediainformation recorded during the first 5:29 minutes of the recording. Thepage number 715 for each page is also displayed. Accordingly, page 700depicted in FIG. 7A is the first page of the multimedia paper document.

As shown in FIG. 7A, title section 702 displays title information forthe multimedia paper document. As depicted in FIG. 7A, the titleinformation includes information identifying the source 716 of themultimedia information recording. According to an embodiment of thepresent invention, source information 716 corresponds to the name (e.g.,filename) of the multimedia document for which the multimedia paperdocument has been generated. The title information displayed in section702 also includes the time 718 when the multimedia document wasrecorded, the total time length 720 of the recording, and the date 722of the recording. For example, page 700 is the first page from amultimedia paper document generated for “CNN News site (Channel 203)”television program which was recorded on May 30, 2001 starting at 12:59PM and has a total length of 56 minutes and 40 seconds.

Text sections 704 and 706 display text information included in themultimedia document for which the multimedia paper document has beengenerated. In the embodiment depicted in FIG. 7A, text sections 704 and706 display CC text included in the multimedia information. Inalternative embodiments of the present invention, text sections 704 and706 may display a transcript of the audio information included in themultimedia information.

Identifiers 712 are printed in (or next to) to the text sections.According to an embodiment of the present invention, each identifier 712printed on a page of the multimedia paper document identifies a segmentof the multimedia document that is printed on the page. The segmentidentifiers are printed proximally close to information corresponding tothe respective segments.

According to alternative embodiments of the present invention,identifiers 712 represent time points in the multimedia document. Inthis embodiment, identifiers 712 are printed proximal to informationprinted on a page that occurs close to the time corresponding to theidentifier. For example, an identifier 712 printed on a particular pagemay represent a time in the time span for the particular page. Forexample, if the time span for a particular page is 0:00 min-5:29 min(e.g., time span of page 700 depicted in FIG. 7A), a particularidentifier 712 may represent a time of 3:00 min, i.e., 3 minutes intothe multimedia recording. The particular identifier is printed proximalto information that occurs at a time of 3 minutes into the multimediarecording.

In the embodiment depicted in FIG. 7A, text sections 704 and 706 displaythe CC text in the English language. However, in alternative embodimentsof the present invention that support multiple languages, the text maybe printed in various languages or combinations thereof. The languagesused to print the text may be different from the language of the CC textincluded in the multimedia information or the language of the audioinformation included in the multimedia information. For example, the CCtext associated with a video broadcast recording may be in English, butthe text corresponding to the CC text printed on the multimedia paperdocument may be in a different language, for example, in Japanese (seeFIG. 7D). Various different formats and styles may be used to print textin the various languages. For example, according to an embodiment of thepresent invention, English text may be printed in text section 704depicted in FIG. 7A and the corresponding translated Japanese text maybe printed in text section 706. In alternative embodiments, each line ofEnglish text printed in a text section may be followed by a Japanesetranslation of the text, and the like. Various other formats may also beused to print text in different languages. The translation of text fromone language to another may be performed by MIPSS 104 or alternativelymay be performed by some other service or application and then providedto MIPSS 104.

The present invention also takes advantage of the automatic storysegmentation that is often provided in close-captioned (CC) text frombroadcast news. Most news agencies who provide CC text as part of theirbroadcast use a special syntax in the CC text (e.g., a “>>>” delimiterto indicate changes in story line or subject, a “>>” delimiter toindicate changes in speakers, etc.) to indicate the beginning of a newstory. Given the presence of this kind of information in the CC texttranscript, the present invention can further enhance the contents ofthe paper document with newspaper layout techniques such as bolding andline spacing that typically signify a new story. For example, asdepicted in FIG. 7A, the first line of each new story is bolded.Further, additional spacing is provided between text portions related todifferent story lines to clearly demarcate the different stories. Thisfurther enhances the readability of the multimedia paper document.

For each speaker identified in the CC text, information related to thespeaker may be printed on page 700 (not shown). The information mayinclude a name of the speaker, an address associated with the speaker,the tile (e.g., CEO, etc.) of the speaker, and other like informationrelated to or identifying the speaker. The information may also includeinformation printed on a business card of the speaker. The informationrelated to the speakers may be determined from multimedia informationstored in the multimedia document or may alternatively be determinedfrom other information resources available to MIPSS 104.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, video section 708displays keyframes extracted from the video information corresponding tothe CNN News Site (Channel 203) news recording. As depicted in FIG. 7A,four keyframes have been extracted from the video information for eachsegment and displayed in video section 706. Identifiers 712 are printedin the upper right hand corner of each set of four keyframes. Asdescribed above, according to an embodiment of the present invention,identifiers 712 identify the segments from which the keyframes have beenextracted. In alternative embodiments of the present invention,identifiers 712 may represent specific time points within the multimediarecording. The number of keyframes that are extracted from each segmentand the number of keyframes printed on each page of the multimedia paperdocument for each segment are user configurable. For example, accordingto one embodiment of the present invention, only one keyframe may bedisplayed for each segment, and the like. As previously stated, severaldifferent keyframe extraction techniques known to those of skill in theart may be used to extract keyframes from the video information includedin the multimedia information. Additionally, several differenttechniques known to those of skill in the art may be used to display oneor more of the extracted keyframes.

As shown in FIG. 7A, identifiers 712 are printed in the text sectionsand also in the video section. A user may thus use identifiers 712 tocorrelate a portion of text printed in text sections 704 or 706 with aset of keyframes displayed in video section 708, and vice versa. Forexample, while a user is skimming the text section, the user may read aparticular portion of text proximal to a particular identifier andlocate keyframes related to or co-occurring with the particular portionof text using the particular identifier. Alternatively, the user may seean identifier for a particular keyframe (or set of keyframes) and usethe identifier to locate text that describes what is being talked aboutat about the time that the keyframe(s) appeared in the videoinformation. Identifiers 712 thus provide a sort of visual reference aswell as a context for reading the text and the keyframes. This enhancesthe readability of the multimedia paper document.

User-selectable identifiers 726 are printed on page 700. In theembodiment depicted in FIG. 7A, user-selectable identifiers 726 areprinted as barcodes. A barcode 726 is printed for each segment printedon page 700. For example, barcode 726-1 corresponds to segment 1,barcode 726-2 corresponds to the segment 2, barcode 726-3 corresponds tothe segment 3, and so on. In alternative embodiments of the presentinvention, various other techniques, besides barcodes, may be used torepresent the user-selectable identifiers. As will be discussed below infurther details, user-selectable identifiers 726 provide a mechanism forthe reader of the multimedia paper document to access or retrievemultimedia information using the multimedia paper document.

In alternative embodiments of the present invention where identifiers712 represent specific time points in the multimedia informationrecording, barcodes 726 may be correlated to identifiers 712 and mayalso correspond to specific time points in the multimedia informationrecording. According to an embodiment of the present invention, barcodes726 may correspond to the same time points as identifiers 712. Furtherdetails related to user-selectable identifiers 726 are provided below.User-selectable identifiers 726 are printed in a manner that does notreduce or affect the overall readability of the multimedia paperdocument.

As depicted in FIG. 7A, controls section 710 displays a plurality ofbarcodes 724 corresponding to controls that may be used by a user tocontrol playback of multimedia information corresponding touser-selected segments. Further details related to controls section 710are provided below. Barcodes 724 are printed in a manner that does notreduce or affect the overall readability of the multimedia paperdocument.

FIG. 7B depicts a second page 750 that follows page 700 depicted in FIG.7A in a multimedia paper document according to an embodiment of thepresent invention. Title section 702 is not displayed on page 750. Page750 displays text and keyframes corresponding to 11 segments (ascompared to page 700 wherein information corresponding to 10 segments isdisplayed) of the multimedia document. The information displayed on page750 corresponds to multimedia information corresponding to 5:29 minutesthrough 11:30 minutes of the recording (as indicated by time spaninformation 714).

FIG. 7C depicts a page 760 from a multimedia paper document generatedaccording to an embodiment of the present invention for a multimediadocument. Page 760 depicted in FIG. 7C corresponds to a page from amultimedia paper document generated for multimedia information recordedduring a meeting. Information identifying the meeting is printed intitle section 766. As depicted in FIG. 7C, page 760 comprises a firsttext section 762, a second text section 764, a video section 768, and acontrols section 770.

Closed-caption text (or a text transcript of the audio information)included in the multimedia document is printed in text section 762. AJapanese translation of the text printed in text section 762 is printedin text section 764. This is different from pages 700 and 750 depictedin FIGS. 7A and 7B, respectively, wherein CC text was printed in boththe text sections. For example, in FIG. 7A, the CC text printed textsection 706 is a continuation of the text printed in text section 704.Various translation resources may be used to generate the Japanesetranslation printed in section 764 of FIG. 7C. It should be apparentthat in alternative embodiments, the CC text may be translated to otherlanguages and printed in a multimedia paper document.

Page 760 depicted in FIG. 7C is merely illustrative of a multimediapaper document page according to an embodiment of the present inventionand does not limit the scope of the invention as recited in the claims.One of ordinary skill in the art would recognize other variations,modifications, and alternatives.

Given a multi-paged multimedia paper document comprising pages of thetype depicted in FIG. 7A, 7B, or 7C, a reader can quickly skim thecontents of the multimedia paper document to see if anything relevantmight be present in the multimedia information for which the multimediapaper document was generated. The time required to skim and comprehendinformation printed in the multimedia paper document will be muchsmaller than the time the user would otherwise have to spend viewing themultimedia information (e.g., new broadcast recording). The presentinvention thus allows the user to save valuable time when “reading”multimedia information.

FIG. 8A depicts a page 800 from a multimedia paper document generatedfor a recorded meeting according to an embodiment of the presentinvention. Page 800 depicted in FIG. 8A is merely illustrative of a pagefrom a multimedia paper document and does not limit the scope of theinvention as recited in the claims. One of ordinary skill in the artwould recognize other variations, modifications, and alternatives.

The recorded meeting for which page 800 is generated may storemultimedia information that includes video information, audioinformation, slides information, and whiteboard information. Techniquesfor recording meetings has been described in U.S. Non-Provisional patentapplication Ser. No. 09/728,560, filed Nov. 30, 2000, and U.S.Non-Provisional patent application Ser. No. 09/728,453, filed Nov. 30,2000.

The slides information included in a recorded meeting may compriseinformation related to slides (e.g., a PowerPoint presentation slides)presented by the presenter during the meeting. The whiteboardinformation may comprise information related to text and drawings drawnon a whiteboard during the meeting. Accordingly, in addition to text(which may correspond to a transcript of the audio information) andvideo information, slides information and whiteboard information arealso included in the printable representation of the recorded meeting.The text, video, slides, and whiteboard information may then be printedon a paper medium as depicted in FIG. 8. Accordingly, the textinformation is printed in sections 802 and 804, video information isprinted in section 806, and slides 806 and whiteboard images 808 areprinted inline with the text sections.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, during generationof the printable representation for the recorded meeting, MIPSS 104synchronizes the slides information and whiteboard information with theaudio and video information using timestamps associated with the varioustypes of information. When the multimedia information corresponding tothe recorded meeting is divided into segments, each segment may comprisetext information, video information, slides information, and whiteboardinformation. When the multimedia paper document is generated, one ormore slides are then printed in close proximity to the identifier of asegment that contains slides information related to the printed slides.The slides are thus printed close to when they were presented. Likewise,images of the whiteboard are printed in close proximity to theidentifier of a segment that contains the whiteboard information. Thewhiteboard images are thus printed close to when they were presented. Inthe embodiment depicted in FIG. 8A, the slides and whiteboard images areprinted inline with the text sections.

Various different layout and format guidelines may be used for printingthe slides and whiteboard information. For example, in FIG. 8B, slides808 and whiteboard images 810 are printed in the margins of themultimedia paper document next to text sections 802. FIG. 8C shows yetanother layout pattern for printing the slides and whiteboardinformation. In FIG. 8C, the slides and whiteboard images aresuperimposed on video keyframes belonging to the segments to which theslides and whiteboard images belong.

As described above, audio information included in multimedia informationstored by a multimedia document is displayed in the form of a texttranscript of the audio information. According to an embodiment of thepresent invention, various other features of the audio signal includedin the multimedia information may also be represented in the printablerepresentation of the multimedia document. According to an embodiment ofthe present invention, visual markers are used to represent the variousfeatures and when printed on a paper medium improve the overallreadability and understandability of the multimedia paper document.

For example, FIG. 9A depicts a page 900 from a multimedia paper documentdisplaying visual markers to denote various attributes of the audioinformation or of the CC text information included in the multimediainformation for the multimedia document for which the multimedia paperdocument is generated according to an embodiment of the presentinvention. Page 900 depicted in FIG. 9A is merely illustrative of amultimedia paper document page according to an embodiment of the presentinvention and does not limit the scope of the invention as recited inthe claims. One of ordinary skill in the art would recognize othervariations, modifications, and alternatives.

As depicted in FIG. 9A, a gap or white space 908 is shown in textsection 904 corresponding to one more segments that do not contain anyCC text information but may comprise other types of information (e.g.,video information) which is printed on the page (e.g., keyframes invideo section 906). The gap may represent a section of the recordingwherein there is no audio or CC text. Alternatively, the gap mayrepresent a section of the recording where there is no CC text and theaudio information during the section cannot be translated to text. Forexample, someone is speaking in a foreign language for which an Englishtranslation is not available. The length of gap 908 may be proportionalto the length of the empty CC text or absence of audio information. Ifthe multimedia information does not include both the audio informationand the CC text for a specified time period, a visual marker such as“SILENCE” may be printed in gap 908.

The video information during a gap in the CC text or audio informationmay still contain important information and is thus displayed askeyframes in video section 906. For example, if someone is speaking in aforeign language for which an English translation is not available fordisplay in the text section, the video during this period may displaytext (e.g., subtitles) corresponding to what is being spoken.Accordingly, keyframes displaying the text may be printed in videosection 906 while a gap is printed in the text section. According to oneembodiment of the present invention, the text images may be extractedfrom the video keyframes during the gap period and printed in gap 908.For example, as depicted in FIG. 9B, text images 920 have been extractedfrom video keyframes corresponding to the gap period, and the extractedtext images 920 are printed in gap space 908. According to yet anotherembodiment of the present invention, optical character =recognition(OCR) techniques may be applied to the video keyframes for the gapperiod and the results of the OCR may be printed in gap space 908. Forexample, as depicted in FIG. 9C, OCR techniques have been applied to thevideo keyframes during the gap period, and the resultant OCRed text 930(which may contain spelling errors) is printed in gap 908.

Other features of the audio information may also be represented viavisual markers printed on the multimedia paper document. For example,features of audio information such as people singing, multiple peopletalking at the same time, people arguing, speaking in soothing tones,significant increases in audio volumes, periods of silence (describedabove) etc. can be identified and represented in the multimedia paperdocument using visual markers. For example, as depicted in FIG. 9A,visual markers “(Singing)” 910 are printed where the audio informationcontains people singing. The visual markers thus make it easy for thereader of the multimedia paper document to quickly locate such parts ofthe audio in the multimedia document.

Several different techniques known to those skilled in the art may beused to identify special features of the audio information in themultimedia information. The following references discuss a fewtechniques that may be used to identify features of audio signals. Theentire contents of the following references are herein incorporated byreference for all purposes:

-   -   (1) L. S. Chen, H. Tao, T. S. Huang, T. Miyasato, R. Nakatsu,        “Emotion Recognition from Audiovisual Information,” Proc. IEEE        Workshop on Multimedia Signal Processing, Los-Angeles, Calif.,        USA, pp. 83-88, 1998;    -   (2) K. Sonmez, L. Heck, M. Weintraub, “Multiple Speaker Tracking        and Detection: Handset Normalization and Duration Scoring,”        Digital Signal Processing, 10 (1/2/3), 133-143, 2000; and    -   (3) F. Dellaert, T. Polzin, A. Waibel, “Recognizing emotion in        speech.” Proceedings ICSLP 96. Fourth International Conference        on Spoken Language Processing (Cat. No. 96TH8206). IEEE. Vol. 3,        pp. 1970-1973, 1996. New York, N.Y., USA.

As described above, video information included in multimedia informationstored by a multimedia document is displayed in the form of one or morekeyframes extracted from the video information and printed on themultimedia paper document. According to an embodiment of the presentinvention, various other features of the video information included inthe multimedia information may also be represented in the printablerepresentation of the multimedia document. According to an embodiment ofthe present invention, visual markers may be used to represent thevarious features of the video information and when printed on a papermedium improve the overall readability and understandability of themultimedia paper document.

For example, features that can be recognized from video information mayinclude faces, facial expressions of speakers depicted in the video(e.g., a facial expression indicating anger), recognition of speakers,hand gestures, logos or signs displayed in the video, presence ofcertain buildings or geographical locations, meetings, animals, crowds,and the like. According to an embodiment of the present invention, thesefeatures are recognized from the video information and represented inthe multimedia paper documents using visual markers. For example,expressions (e.g. “Anger,” “Laughter”, etc.), geographical locations,special building names, etc. can be shown with a text-based annotationnext to the corresponding video keyframe. Speaker face recognitionresults may be shown with the name of the speaker printed next to akeyframe depicting the speaker. Logos and signs recognized from thevideo can be displayed or the names of companies corresponding to thelogos may be displayed.

Several different styles and formats may be used to display the visualmarkers for the video features. According to an embodiment of thepresent invention, the layout and format information may specify thestyles or formats are to be used. For example, the visual markers forthe video information may be displayed close to keyframes correspondingto the visual markers, or in the margins of the multimedia paperdocument. In alternative embodiments, the visual markers may bedisplayed interspersed with the text section information. Differenttypes of fonts may be used to display the visual markers. The visualmarkers thus make it easy for the reader of the multimedia paperdocument to quickly locate such parts of the video in the multimediadocument.

The text displayed in the text sections of a multimedia paper document(e.g., text sections 704 and 706 depicted in FIG. 7A) may also bemodified based upon recognition of certain video features. For example,text printed in the text section and spoken by a particular speaker maybe highlighted, and the like.

Several different techniques known to those skilled in the art may beused to identify special features of the video information in themultimedia information. The following references discuss a fewtechniques that may be used to identify features of the video data. Theentire contents of the following references are herein incorporated byreference for all purposes:

-   -   (1) A. Essa, A. P. Pentland, Coding Analysis Interpretation and        Recognition of Facial Expressions, IEEE Trans. on Pattern        Analysis and Machine Intelligence, vol. 19, no. 7, pp. 757-763,        1997;    -   (2) G. Donato, M. Bartlett, J. Hager, P. Ekman, and T.        Sejnowski, Classifying Facial Actions, IEEE Trans. on Pattern        Analysis and Machine Intelligence, vol. 21, no. 10, pp. 974-989,        October 1999;    -   (3) A. F. Bobick, A. D. Wilson, A State based approach to the        representation and recognition of gesture, IEEE Trans. on        Pattern Analysis and Machine Intelligence, pp. 1325-1337, 1997;    -   (4) H. A. Rowley, S. Baluja, T. Kanade, “Neural network-based        face detection,” IEEE Transactions on Pattern Analysis and        Machine Intelligence, v. 20, no. 1, 23-38, 1998;    -   (5) D. S. Doermann, E Rivlin, and I. Weiss. Applying algebraic        and differential invarients for logo recognition. Machine Vision        and Applications, 9 (2):73-86, 1996;    -   (6) H. Li, D. Doermann, and O. Kia. Automatic Text Detection and        Tracking in Digital Video. IEEE Transactions on Image        Processing—Special Issue on Image and Video Processing for        Digital Libraries, 9 (1), pages 147-156, 2000;    -   (7) P. Suda, C. Bridoux, B. Kammerer, G. Manderlechner, “Logo        and word matching using a general approach to signal        registration,” Fourth International Conference on Document        Analysis and Recognition, Ulm, Germany, Aug. 18-20, 1997, 61-65;    -   (8) H. Li, D. Doermann, and O. Kia. Text Extraction and        Recognition in Digital Video. Proceedings of Third IAPR Workshop        on Document Analysis Systems, pages 119-128, 1998;    -   (9) Face recognition techniques described at web site        “www.visionics.com”; and    -   (10) Ioffe, S. I. and Forsyth, D. A., Finding people by        sampling, Proc. International Conference on Computer Vision, p.        1092-7, 1999.

Various other features of the multimedia information may also bedetected and represented in the printable representation of themultimedia document (or on the multimedia paper document when printed),using special visual markers. For example, the presence of a commercialin the multimedia information may be detected and informationcorresponding to the commercial printed on the paper medium (e.g.,keyframes corresponding to the commercial, portions of text sectionscorresponding to the commercial, etc.) may be visually demarcated (e.g.,by using a special font, drawing boxes around the printed information,etc.). As another example, sections of the multimedia informationincluding multiple individuals talking within a user-configurable lengthof time may be identified and specially marked in the multimedia paperdocument. For example, a user may like to see parts of the multimediainformation where more than 3 different people speak within a 1-minuteperiod. This information may be highlighted in the multimedia paperdocument.

Several different techniques known to those skilled in the art may beused to identify special features of the video information in themultimedia information. The following reference discusses a fewtechniques that may be used to identify features of the video data. Theentire contents of the following reference are herein incorporated byreference for all purposes.

-   -   (a) Rainer Lienhart, Christoph Kuhmünch and Wolfgang Effelsberg.        On the Detection and Recognition of Television Commercials,        Proc. IEEE Conf. on Multimedia Computing and Systems, Ottawa,        Canada, pp. 509-516, June 1997.

Annotating Multimedia Information

According to the teachings of the present invention, the printablerepresentation for a multimedia document may be annotated to identifylocations of information in the multimedia document that may be ofinterest to the user. The multimedia paper document generated byprinting the annotated printable representation on a paper mediumdisplays the annotations. The annotations provide visual indications ofinformation relevant or of interest to the user. For example,information printed in the multimedia paper document that is relevant totopics of interest specified by a user may be annotated or highlighted.In this manner, the multimedia paper document provides a convenient toolthat allows a user to readily locate portions of the multimedia paperdocument that are relevant to the user. Since the multimedia paperdocument comprises a printable representation of multimedia information,the multimedia paper document generated according to the teachings ofthe present invention allows the user to identify portions of multimediainformation that are of interest to the user.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, informationspecifying topics of interest to the user may be stored in a userprofile. One or more words or phrases may be associated with each topicof interest. Presence of words and phrases associated with a particularuser-specified topic of interest indicates presence of informationrelated the particular topic. For example, a user may specify two topicsof interest—“George Bush” and “Energy Crisis”. Words or phrasesassociated with the topic “George Bush” may include “President Bush,”“the President,” “Mr. Bush,” and other like words and phrases.

Words or phrases associated with the topic “Energy Crisis” may include“industrial pollution,” “natural pollution,” “clean up the sources,”“amount of pollution,” “air pollution”, “electricity,” “power-generatingplant,” and the like. Probability values may be associated with each ofthe words or phrases indicating the likelihood of the topic of interestgiven the presence of the word or phrase. Various tools may be providedto allow the user to configure topics of interest, to specify keywordsand phrases associated with the topics, and to specify probabilityvalues associated with the keywords or phrases.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, after generating aprintable representation of multimedia information stored in amultimedia document (in step 408 of FIG. 4), MIPSS 104 accesses the userprofile information and determines topics of interest specified in theuser profile and keywords and phrases associated with the topics ofinterest. MIPSS 104 then searches the printable representation of themultimedia information to identify locations within the printablerepresentation of words or phrases associated with the topics ofinterest. As described above, presence of words and phrases associatedwith a particular user-specified topic of interest indicates presence ofthe particular topic relevant to the user. According to one embodimentof the present invention, MIPSS 104 searches the text sections includedin the printable representation of a multimedia document to locate wordsor phrases associated with the user topics. If MIPSS 104 finds a word orphrase in the printable representation that is associated with a topicof interest, the word or phrase is annotated in the printablerepresentation. Several different techniques may be used to annotate theword or phrase. For example, the word or phrase may highlighted, bolded,underlined, demarcated using sidebars or balloons, font may be changed,etc. The annotations are then printed on the multimedia paper documentgenerated by printing the annotated printable representation of themultimedia information.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, MIPSS 104 may alsohighlight keyframes (representing video information of the multimediadocument) related to user specified topics of interest. According to anembodiment of the present invention, MIPSS 104 may use OCR techniques toextract text from the keyframes included in the printable representationof the multimedia information. The text output by the OCR techniques maythen be compared with words or phrases specified in a user's profile. Ifthere is a match, the keyframe corresponding to the matched word orphrase (i.e., the keyframe from which the matching word or phrase wasextracted) may be annotated in the printable representation. Severaldifferent techniques may be used to annotate the keyframe. For example,a special box may surround the keyframe, the matching text in thekeyframe may be highlighted or underlined or displayed in reverse video,and the like. The keyframe annotations are then printed on themultimedia paper document generated by printing the annotated printablerepresentation of the multimedia information.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, MIPSS 104 mayidentify information stored by the multimedia document that is relevantto user-specified topics of interest even before the printablerepresentation for the multimedia document has been generated. In thisembodiment, MIPSS 104 analyzes the multimedia information stored in themultimedia document to identify information relevant to user-specifiedtopics of interest. For example, MIPSS 104 may analyze the videoinformation contained in the multimedia document to identify videoframes that contain information relevant to user-specified topics ofinterest. Various different techniques, e.g., OCR techniques, known tothose skilled in the art may be used to analyze the video information.MIPSS 104 may analyze the audio or closed-caption text informationincluded in the multimedia document to identify sections of theinformation that include information relevant to user-specified topicsof interest. For example, MIPSS 104 may generate a text transcript ofthe audio information and then analyze the text transcript to identifypresence of words or phrases related to the user-specified topics ofinterest. Likewise, the CC text may also be analyzed. Other types ofinformation (e.g., slides information, whiteboard information, etc.)included in the multimedia information stored by the multimedia documentmay also be analyzed. As previously stated, various analysis techniquesknown to those skilled in the art may be used to analyze the multimediainformation stored by the multimedia document. MIPSS 104 may thengenerate a printable representation for the multimedia document andannotate information in the printable representation that was deemedrelevant to one or more user-specified topics of interest. Themultimedia paper document generated by printing the annotated printablerepresentation displays the annotations.

FIG. 10 depicts a page 1000 whose contents have been annotated accordingto an embodiment of the present invention. Page 1000 depicted in FIG. 10is merely illustrative of a multimedia paper document page and does notlimit the scope of the invention as recited in the claims. One ofordinary skill in the art would recognize other variations,modifications, and alternatives. As depicted in FIG. 10, words andphrases related to topics of interest are highlighted in text sections1002 and 1004. For the embodiment depicted in FIG. 10 it is assumed thattwo topics of interest, namely “George Bush” and “Energy Crisis”, havebeen specified. Keywords and phrases related to these topics of interestare highlighted. Different colors and styles (e.g., bolding,underlining, different font size, etc.) may be used to highlight wordsand phrases related to different topics. For example, as depicted inFIG. 10, a first color is used to highlight words and phrases related tothe “George Bush” topic of interest and a second color is used tohighlight words and phrases related to the “Energy Crisis” topic ofinterest.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, in addition tohighlighting information relevant to topics of interest, the presentinvention may also determine and display a relevancy score for eachtopic of interest. The relevancy score calculated for a particular topicof interest indicates the relevancy of the information printed in themultimedia paper document to that particular user topic. The relevancyscore for a topic of interest thus indicates the degree of relevancy ofthe multimedia information represented by the multimedia paper documentto the topic of interest. According to an embodiment of the presentinvention, the relevancy score for a particular topic may be calculatedbased upon the frequency of occurrences of the words and phrasesassociated with the particular topic in the multimedia paper document.

The relevancy scores for the topics may be included in the printablerepresentation of the multimedia document and printed on the multimediapaper document. A reader or user could then use the relevancy scoreprinted on the multimedia paper document as a guide to determinerelevancy of the multimedia information to the user topics. For example,if multiple multimedia paper documents have been generated for aplurality of news broadcasts, based upon the relevancy scores printed onthe multimedia paper documents for the various broadcasts, a user caneasily determine the news broadcast that is most relevant to the userfor any given user topic.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, information storedin a user's profile and words or phrases related to user-specifiedtopics of interest detected in the text section (CC text or transcriptof audio information) may also be used to select keyframes from thevideo information that are relevant to the user-specified topics ofinterest. Since only a limited number of keyframes can be printed on themultimedia paper document due to limited amount of space available on amultimedia paper document page, selection of keyframes relevant to theuser improves the readability of the document for the user.

As described above, a user profile may be configured by a user and maystore information identifying one or more topics of interest to theuser. One or more words or phrases may be associated with each topic ofinterest such that presence of the words and phrases associated with aparticular topic of interest indicates presence of information relatedto the particular topic. According to an embodiment of the presentinvention, probability values may be associated with each of the wordsor phrases indicating the likelihood of the topic of interest given thepresence of the word or phrase. In order to facilitate selection ofrelevant keyframes, the user profile also stores information aboutfeatures of the video information (or of the keyframes) that the userwould like the present invention to search for in the video informationwhen a word or phrase related to a topic is found in the text section.

As previously described, several different features can be recognizedfrom the video information. These features may include recognition of ahuman face, buildings, geographical locations, presence of a crowd, handgestures, logos or signs, meetings, animals, text, and the like. Variousalgorithms known to those skilled in the art may be used to detect thefeatures from the video information. For each of the features statedabove, techniques that recognize video features may also be used toidentify specific instances of a feature. For example, if a face isidentified in a video frame, face recognition techniques may be appliedto determine the identity of the face (i.e., a specific instance of aface). Likewise, if a logo was identified in a video frame, techniquesmay be applied to determine the name of the company corresponding to thelogo. Similarly, if a building was identified in a video frame,techniques may be applied to determine if the building was a specificbuilding such as the Empire State Building. Likewise, if an animal wasidentified in a video frame, techniques may be applied to determine thetype (e.g., horse, cat, dog, etc.) of animal.

As part of a user's profile, the user may specify one or more videofeatures (and specific instances of the features where appropriate) tobe associated with one or more topics of interest. According to anembodiment of the present invention, the video features may beassociated with keywords or phrases associated with user topics ofinterest.

For each video feature, the user may also specify weight values for eachtopic indicating the relative importance of the video feature for thattopic of interest.

FIG. 11 depicts a user profile 1100 that may be configured by a useraccording to an embodiment of the present invention to facilitateselection of keyframes relevant to user-specified topics of interest. Asdepicted in FIG. 11, three topics of interest have been specified,namely, “Terrorism”, “Company XYZ”, and “Football”. Keywords and phraseshave been associated with each of the topics. In order to facilitateselection of keyframes relevant to the user topics of interest from thevideo information, the user has also specified video features to besearched for when keywords and phrases associated with the topics arelocated in the text (e.g., in the CC text or in the text transcript ofaudio information) of the multimedia information. Weights have beenassociated with the video features indicating the relative importance ofthe video features for each topic of interest. For example, for thetopic “Terrorism”, the face of Osama Bin Laden (weighted 0.7) isslightly more important than presence of text “Afghanistan” (weighted0.6).

Profile 1100 specifies the criteria for selecting keyframes relevant tothe topics of interest given the presence of a keyword or phrase relatedto the topics of interest. For example, profile information 1100specifies that the words “Osama” and “Afghanistan” are associated withthe topic “Terrorism”. If the word “Osama” is located in the textinformation of the multimedia information, then the video information(or video frames which have been extracted from the video information)temporally proximal to the occurrence of the word “Osama” in the textinformation are to be checked to determine if they include a face ofOsama Bin Laden. Keyframes that contain Osama Bin Laden's face aredeemed to be relevant (degree of relevance indicated by the weightvalue) to topic “Terrorism.”

Likewise, if the word “Afghanistan” is located in the text informationof the multimedia information, then the video frames temporally proximalto the occurrence of the word “Afghanistan” in the text information areto be checked to determine if they contain text “Afghanistan”. Aspreviously described, OCR techniques may be used to extract text fromvideo keyframes. Keyframes that contain text “Afghanistan” are deemed tobe relevant (degree of relevance indicated by the weight value) to topic“Terrorism.”

Further, for all (indicated by “*”) keywords and phrases (including“Osama” and “Afghanistan”) associated with the topic “Terrorism,” videoframes temporally proximal to the occurrence of the words or phrases inthe text information are to be checked to determine if they contain abuilding or (indicated by the Boolean connector OR) a crowd. Suchkeyframes are deemed to be relevant (degree of relevance indicated bythe weight value) to topic “Terrorism.” Accordingly, if the word “Osama”is located in the text information of the multimedia information, thenthe video frames temporally proximal to the occurrence of the word“Osama” in the text information would be first checked to determine ifthey include a face of Osama Bin Laden, and then checked to determine ifthey contain a building or a crowd.

Likewise, profile information 1100 specifies that the word “Suzuki” isassociated with the topic “Company XYZ” (“Suzuki” may be the name of theCEO of Company XYZ). If the word “Suzuki” is located in the textinformation of the multimedia information, then the video framestemporally proximal to the occurrence of the word “Suzuki” in the textinformation are to be checked to determine if they include a face ofJohn Suzuki. Keyframes that contain John Suzuki's face are deemed to berelevant (degree of relevance indicated by the weight value) to topic“Company XYZ.”

Further, for all (indicated by “*”) keywords and phrases (including“Suzuki”) associated with the topic “Company XYZ”, video framestemporally proximal to the occurrence of the words or phrases are to bechecked to determine if they contain a building and (indicated by theBoolean connector AND) further if they contain either a XYZ logo or(indicated by the Boolean connector OR) text “XYZ”. Such keyframes aredeemed to be relevant (degree of relevance indicated by the weightvalue) to topic “Company XYZ.”

Likewise, profile information 1100 specifies that the phrase “BuffaloBills” is associated with the topic “Football”. If the phrase “BuffaloBills” is located in the text information of the multimedia information,then the video frames temporally proximal to the occurrence of thephrase are to be checked to determine if they include a face of JimKelly or the face of Marv Levy. Keyframes that contain either JimKelly's or Marv Levy's face are deemed to be relevant (degree ofrelevance indicated by the weight value) to topic “Football”.

FIG. 12 depicts modules that facilitate selection of keyframes relevantto topics of interest according to an embodiment of the presentinvention. The modules depicted in FIG. 12 may be software modules,hardware modules, or combinations thereof. The modules depicted in FIG.12 are merely illustrative of an embodiment of the present invention andare not meant to limit the scope of the present invention as recited inthe claims. One of ordinary skill in the art would recognize othervariations, modifications, and alternatives.

As depicted in FIG. 12, a video feature recognition module 1202 receivesas input video frames corresponding to (or extracted from) the videoinformation contained by a multimedia document. For each video frame,video feature recognition module 1202 determines if the video framecontains any video features such as a face, a building, a logo, text,etc. If a particular video feature is located, video feature recognitionmodule 1202 assigns a probability value to the feature indicating theprobability that the video frame contains the identified video feature.Video feature recognition module 1202 also determines a specificinstance of the video feature and assigns a probability value to it. Forexample, for a particular video frame, video feature recognition module1202 may determine that there is an 85% probability that the video framecontains a face and that there is a 90% probability that the facebelongs to John Suzuki. For the same video frame, video featurerecognition module 1202 may determine that there is only a 3%probability that the video frame contains a building, and only a 1%probability that the video frame contains a logo. The output of videofeature recognition module 1202 is a ranked list of features andspecific instances for each video frame. If no video feature isdetected, a generic keyframe selection procedure may be applied. Theprocedure may calculate the probability that a frame is a potentialkeyframe. The video frames and their associated ranked list informationis then forwarded to frame selector module 1204 for further processing.

Profile matcher module 1206 receives as input user profile informationand text information (e.g., CC text information or transcript of audioinformation) extracted from the multimedia document. Based upon the userprofile information, profile matcher module 1206 searches the textinformation to locate words and phrases in the text information that arerelated to user-specified topics of interest. The words and phraseslocated in the text information are annotated by profile matcher module1206. As described previously, various techniques may be used toannotate the text information. The text information along with theannotations is then forwarded to frames selector module 1204 and toprintable representation generator module 1208 for further processing.

As described above, frame selector module 1204 receives as input videoframes and associated ranked list information from video featurerecognition module 1202, the annotated text information from profilematcher module 1206, and user profile information. Based upon the userprofile information, for each annotated word or phrase found in the textinformation, frame selector module 1204 determines video frames relevantto the topic with which the annotated word or phrase is associated.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, for a particularannotated word, frame selector module 1204 identifies video framestemporally proximal to the occurrence of the particular annotated wordin the text information. This may be performed by determining the timestamp associated with the annotated word, and identifying a set of videoframes within a time window of ±N seconds from the time stamp of theannotated word. The value of N is user configurable. For example, if N=5seconds, frame selector module 1204 identifies a set of video frameswithin a time window of 15 seconds from the time stamp of the annotatedword.

Frame selector module 1204 then determines the topic of interest withwhich the annotated word is associated and the video features that arerelevant to the particular annotated word or topic of interest (asspecified in the user profile). Each video frame in the set of videoframes within the ±N seconds time window is then searched to determineif it contains one or more video features specified in the user profilefor the topic or word. A relevancy score is calculated for each videoframe in the set of video frames.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, in order tocalculate a relevancy score for a video frame, frame selector module1204 multiplies the weight assigned to the video feature in the userprofile by the probability value assigned to the video frame by videofeature recognition module 1202 indicating that the frame contains theparticular video feature. The other probability values assigned to thevideo frame by video feature recognition module 1202 may be multipliedby a constant (K) that is less than the weights in the profileinformation. This ensures that the simultaneous detection of a keywordand a relevant video frame will provide a higher rank for that videoframe than if the keyword was not detected. After each video frame inthe set of video frames has been assigned a relevancy value, the videoframes are ranked based upon their relevancy values. Accordingly, foreach annotated word or phrase in the text information, frame selectormodule generates a ranked list of video frames. The ranked list ofkeyframes for each annotated word or phrase is then forwarded toprintable representation generator module 1208 for further processing.

Printable representation generator module 1208 receives annotated textinformation from profile matcher module 1206 and ranked lists ofkeyframes for the annotations from frame selector module 1204. Printablerepresentation generator module also receives as input other types ofinformation included in the multimedia information stored by themultimedia document and layout and format information. Based upon thevarious inputs, printable representation generator module 1208 generatesa printable representation for the multimedia document.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, as part ofprocessing performed to generate the printable representation for themultimedia document, printable representation generator module 1208determines which keyframes to be included in the printablerepresentation for the multimedia document for each segment of themultimedia document based upon the layout and format information and theranked listing received from frame selector module 1204. For example,let's assume that the layout information specifies that four keyframesare to be printed for each segment. In this scenario, if the textcorresponding to a particular segment contains only one annotated word,then the top four most relevant keyframes from the ranked list ofkeyframes associated with the annotated word and received from frameselector module 1204 are selected to be included in the printablerepresentation for the segment. If a particular segment contains fourdifferent annotated words, then printable representation generatormodule 1208 may select only the most relevant keyframe from the rankedlists of keyframes associated with each of the four annotated words forinclusion in the printable representation (making a total of 4keyframes). Accordingly, printable representation generator module 1208determines the keyframes to be included in the printable representationfor each segment of the multimedia document using the ranked list ofkeyframes received from frame selector module 1208.

Using a Multimedia Paper Document to Retrieve Multimedia Information

The present invention provides techniques that allow a user to access orretrieve multimedia information in digital form using the multimediapaper document generated for a multimedia document. The multimedia paperdocument may thus be used as an indexing and retrieval tool forretrieving multimedia information that may be stored in the multimediadocument. For example, a user may use a multimedia paper documentgenerated for a video recording to access or retrieve portions of thevideo recording.

FIG. 13A is a simplified high-level flowchart 1300 depicting a method ofretrieving multimedia information using a multimedia paper documentaccording to an embodiment of the present invention. Flowchart 1300depicted in FIG. 13 is merely illustrative of an embodimentincorporating the present invention and does not limit the scope of theinvention as recited in the claims. One of ordinary skill in the artwould recognize other variations, modifications, and alternatives.

As depicted in FIG. 13, a user may initiate the method by selecting oneor more segments from a multimedia paper document corresponding tomultimedia information that the user wishes to access or retrieve (step1302). The segments may be selected by selecting user-selectableidentifiers (e.g., user-selectable identifiers 726 depicted in FIG. 7A)associated with the segments using a selection device. Theuser-selectable identifiers corresponding to the segments may beselected from one or more pages of a multimedia paper document. Further,the user-selectable identifiers may be selected from one or moremultimedia paper documents. Several different techniques may be providedby a multimedia paper document to enable the user to select one or moresegments.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, barcode technologyis used to facilitate selection of segments. In this embodiment, theuser-selectable identifiers are printed in the multimedia paper documentin the form of barcodes. Each barcode corresponds to a particularsegment of the multimedia document. For example, as depicted in FIG. 7A,according to an embodiment of the present invention, a barcode 726 isprinted for each segment printed on a page of the multimedia paperdocument. For example, barcode 726-1 printed on page 700 corresponds tosegment 1, barcode 726-2 corresponds to the segment 2, barcode 726-3corresponds to the segment 3, and so on. A user can select a particularsegment by scanning the barcode corresponding to that segment. Aselection device such as a barcode scanner or any other device that iscapable of scanning barcodes may be used to scan the barcodes. The usermay scan one or more barcodes from one or more pages of one or moremultimedia paper documents.

It should be apparent that various other techniques, besides barcodes,may be used to facilitate selection of segments corresponding tomultimedia information that the user wishes to access or retrieve.According to an embodiment of the present invention, the user-selectableidentifiers may be implements as watermarks printed on pages of themultimedia paper document may also be used as techniques for selectingsegments. In this embodiment, a user may select one or more watermarkscorresponding to segments of interest to the user using a selectiondevice that is capable of reading or detecting the watermarks.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, theuser-selectable identifiers may be implemented as text stringidentifiers printed on pages of the multimedia paper document. In thisembodiment, a user may select a particular segment by keying in orentering the text string identifier corresponding to the particularsegment into a selection device such as a telephone, a DVR, etc.

Various other techniques (e.g., Xerox glyphs embedded in keyframes,etc.) known to those skilled in the art may also be used to facilitateselection of segments. Generally, in order to maintain the readabilityof the multimedia paper document, techniques that are less obtrusive,and those that do not take up too much space on the page, and which aresomewhat aesthetically pleasing may be used.

After the user has selected one or more segments, the user may selectpreferences for playing back the multimedia information corresponding tothe segments selected in step 1302 (step 1304). According to anembodiment of the present invention, the user may specify preferences byselecting one or more controls from controls section 710. As withselection of segments, various different techniques maybe used tofacilitate selection of controls. For example, according to anembodiment of the present invention, a particular control may beselected by scanning a barcode corresponding to the control. Forexample, the user may specify that the multimedia information is to beplayed back in “Enhanced Mode” by selecting barcode 724-4 depicted inFIG. 7A. The user may specify that the playback is to show CC text byselecting barcode 724-5 corresponding to control “Show Closed-caption”.The user may specify that time is to be displayed during the playback byselecting barcode 724-6 corresponding to control “Show Time”. The userin step 1304 may also select various other preferences.

According to an embodiment of the present invention, as part of step1304, the user may also specify an output device to be used for playingback the multimedia information corresponding to the segments selectedin step 1302. According to an embodiment of the present invention, oneor more devices that may be located at different geographical locationsmay be selected for playback. For example, the selected output devicemay be the user's PDA, a computer in the user's office, a television atthe user's home, a specific kiosk, and the like.

In alternative embodiments of the present invention, the userpreferences and the output device may be pre-configured. For example,this information may be stored in a user profile. Alternatively, thepreferences and the output device may default to some preset values. Insuch a scenario, step 1304 may not be performed.

The user may then request playback of the multimedia informationcorresponding to the segments selected in step 1302 (step 1306).According to an embodiment of the present invention, the user mayrequest playback by selecting a barcode such as barcode 724-1corresponding to the “Play” control. According to an embodiment of thepresent invention, upon selecting the “Play” control, a signal istransmitted from the selection device (e.g., a barcode scanner) used bythe user to select the segments and the preferences to a server that iscapable of retrieving multimedia information corresponding to theuser-selected segments. The server may be MIPSS 104 or any other server.The signal communicated to the server from the selection device mayidentify the segments selected by the user in step 1302, the multimediapaper documents from which the segments are to be selected, informationrelated to preferences and/or one or more output devices selected by theuser in step 1304, and other like information to facilitate retrieval ofthe requested multimedia information.

Various techniques and communication links may be used to communicatethe signal from the selection device used by the user to the server. Forexample, if the selection device is a barcode scanner, a communicationlink may be established between the barcode scanner and the server andthe signal information may be communication to the server via thecommunication link. Different types of communication links may be usedincluding hardwire links, optical links, satellite or other wirelesscommunications links, wave propagation links, or any other mechanismsfor communication of information. Various communication protocols may beused to facilitate communication of the signal via the communicationlinks. These communication protocols may include TCP/IP, HTTP protocols,extensible markup language (XML), wireless application protocol (WAP),protocols under development by industry standard organizations,vendor-specific protocols, customized protocols, and others.

In other embodiments, a telephone may be used as a selection device. Forexample, a user may use a telephone to establish a communication linkwith the server. The user may then communication the signal informationto server using the telephone. For example, the user may key inuser-selectable identifiers (e.g., text string identifiers)corresponding to the selected segments and controls using the telephone.Various other techniques may also be used to communicate the informationto the server.

The server receiving the signal from the selection device may thenretrieve multimedia information corresponding to the user-selectedsegments (step 1308). According to an embodiment of the presentinvention, the server determines the user-selectable identifiersselected by the user. The server then determines segments of themultimedia document corresponding to the user-selectable identifiersselected by the user. The server then retrieves multimedia informationcorresponding to the selected segments.

The multimedia information may be retrieved from a single multimediadocument or from multiple multimedia documents. For example, if the userselected user-selectable identifiers from multiple multimedia documents,then the server retrieves multimedia information corresponding toselected segments from multiple multimedia documents.

The multimedia information retrieved by the server is then communicatedto the one or more output devices selected for playback (step 1310). Themultimedia information is then played on the one or more output devicesselected for playback (step 1312). The user may control playback of themultimedia information by selecting one more controls from control area710 depicted in FIG. 7A. For example, the user may stop playback of themultimedia information by selecting barcode 724-1 corresponding to the“Stop” control. A user may fast-forward 10 seconds of the multimediainformation by selecting barcode 724-2. A user may rewind 10 seconds ofthe multimedia information by selecting barcode 724-3. Various othercontrols not shown in FIG. 7A may also be provided in alternativeembodiments of the present invention to control playback of themultimedia information.

According to an alternative embodiment of the present invention, a usermay use the multimedia paper document to start playing multimediainformation from a user-selected time point in the multimedia document.In this embodiment, the user-selectable identifiers (e.g., barcodes 726depicted in FIG. 7A) printed in a multimedia paper document representparticular time points in the multimedia document. According to anembodiment of the present invention, the barcodes may correspond to thesame time points as the identifiers (e.g., identifiers 712 depicted inFIG. 7A) printed on a page of the multimedia paper document.

FIG. 13B is a simplified high-level flowchart 1350 depicting a method ofretrieving multimedia information from a particular time point using amultimedia paper document according to an embodiment of the presentinvention. Flowchart 1350 depicted in FIG. 13B is merely illustrative ofan embodiment incorporating the present invention and does not limit thescope of the invention as recited in the claims. One of ordinary skillin the art would recognize other variations, modifications, andalternatives.

As depicted in FIG. 13, a user may initiate the method by selecting auser-selectable identifier printed on a multimedia paper documentcorresponding to a time point in the multimedia document from where theuser wishes to retrieve multimedia information (step 1352). As describedabove, several different techniques (e.g., barcodes, watermarks, glyphs,text strings, etc.) may be provided by the multimedia paper document toenable the user to the user-selectable identifier.

After selecting a user-selectable identifier, the user may selectpreferences for playing back the multimedia information (step 1304). Asdescribed above with respect to FIG. 13A, the user may select a mode forplaying back the multimedia information, select one or more outputdevices for playing back the multimedia information, and the like. Step1354 may not be performed if the user preferences are pre-configured.

The user may then request playback of the multimedia information (step1356). According to an embodiment of the present invention, uponselecting the “Play” control, a signal is transmitted from the selectiondevice (e.g., a barcode scanner) used by the user to a server that iscapable of retrieving multimedia information from the multimediadocument. The server may be MIPSS 104 or any other server. The signalcommunicated to the server from the selection device may identify theuser-selectable identifier selected by the user in step 1352, themultimedia paper document from which the user-selectable identifier wasselected, information related to preferences and/or one or more outputdevices selected by the user in step 1354, and other like information tofacilitate retrieval of the requested multimedia information.

The server receiving the signal from the selection device then retrievesmultimedia information from the time point corresponding to theuser-selectable identifier selected by the user in step 1352 (step1358). According to an embodiment of the present invention, the serverdetermines a time point in the multimedia document corresponding to theuser-selectable identifier selected by the user and retrieves multimediainformation from the time point onwards. view

The multimedia information retrieved by the server in step 1358 is thencommunicated to the one or more output devices selected for playback(step 1360). The multimedia information is then played back on the oneor more output devices selected for playback (step 1362). The user maycontrol playback of the multimedia information by selecting one morecontrols from control area 710 depicted in FIG. 7A. For example, theuser may stop playback of the multimedia information by selectingbarcode 724-1 corresponding to the “Stop” control. A user mayfast-forward 10 seconds of the multimedia information by selectingbarcode 724-2. A user may rewind 10 seconds of the multimediainformation by selecting barcode 724-3. Various other controls not shownin FIG. 7A may also be provided in alternative embodiments of thepresent invention to control playback of the multimedia information.

Accordingly, as described above, the multimedia paper document providesa simple and easy-to-use mechanism for retrieving multimediainformation. The convenience afforded by the multimedia paper documentin retrieving multimedia information might be illustrated by thefollowing example. Let's assume that a user has requested that thetelevision program “Bloomberg” be recorded between the hours of 9-11 AMduring which important financial news is broadcast. Various differentdevices may be used to record the news broadcast including a videorecorder, a digital video recorder (DVR) (e.g., a TIVO box), and thelike. The user may then generate a multimedia paper document for therecorded news broadcast.

Let's further assume that the user has 15 minutes before a power lunchwith a client to digest the two-hour Bloomberg TV program to find out ifany relevant information was mentioned regarding the client's company ortheir main competitor. With the paper-based version of the broadcast(i.e., the multimedia paper document), the user can quickly skim themultimedia paper document for relevant information. When the user findsone or more segments in the multimedia paper document of interest, theuser can use a barcode scanner to scan the barcodes corresponding tosegments in the multimedia paper document. The user may also scan acontrol barcode instructing the recorder to launch the videocorresponding to the selected segments on a television in the user'soffice. This sends a message to the recorder to launch the videocorresponding to the selected segments on the television in the user'soffice. If the user has selected multiple segments, multimediainformation corresponding to the selected segments will be played on theuser's television, skipping the segments or sections that are notselected by the user. In this manner, the user can quickly navigatetwo-hours of a television broadcast in 15 minutes watching only thoseportions of the broadcast that are of interest to the user, and be readyfor the client meeting in time.

In the above scenario the user could have selected segments frommultiple multimedia paper documents generated for a plurality of newsbroadcasts from news agencies such as CNBC, CNN/fn, MSNBC, and the like.The user could then skim the multimedia paper documents to locate newsrelated to the client or the client's competitors from the variousbroadcasts. This is equivalent to watching several hours of video in ashort time—something that is very difficult to achieve if the user onlyhas access to a video player. The user may then select segments ofinterest from the multiple multimedia papers and watch videocorresponding to the selected segments.

In the above scenario, the present invention automatically records adesired broadcast program based a user's profile and produces amultimedia paper document that acts both as a familiar skimming tool anda retrieval device for viewing desired portions of the video. In theabove-described scenario, the interface is not on the user's personalcomputer—instead, the interface is in the user's hands in the form ofpaper. In some cases, this is a more desired environment since mostindividuals are familiar with and more comfortable with reading andusing paper. The paper-based interface thus provides a unique mechanismfor indexing or referring back to the digitized multimedia informationstored by the multimedia document. The indexing technique provided bythe present invention may then be used by a user to retrieve themultimedia information in digital format. The multimedia paper documentprovides a portable means for random access to the multimediainformation, a task that traditionally required tedious searching of themultimedia information.

Generating a Single Printable Representation for a Plurality ofMultimedia Documents

The present invention provides techniques for generating a singleprintable representation that includes multimedia information extractedfrom a plurality of different multimedia documents or multimediasources. According to an embodiment of the present invention, the singleprintable representation includes multimedia information selected fromthe plurality of multimedia documents based upon selection criteria. Auser may specify the selection criteria. The selection criteria may bebased upon any attributes of the multimedia documents or their contents,or upon user-specified topics of interest, and the like. For example,the selection criteria may specify a particular subject (e.g.,information related to the Taliban in Afghanistan, or abortion relatedinformation, etc.), a specified story line, and the like.

For example, a user may specify that a single printable representation(or a single multimedia paper document) be generated consolidatingstories and articles related to “Middle East Terrorism” from a pluralityof news broadcast recordings. In response, the present inventiongenerates a single printable representation that includes multimediainformation from the plurality of news broadcast recordings related to“Middle East Terrorism.” The single consolidated printablerepresentation may then be printed to generate a single consolidatedmultimedia paper document that contains information related to “MiddleEast Terrorism” from multiple multimedia documents.

According to another example, topics of interest to the user (which maybe stored in a user profile) may be specified as the selection criteria.Based upon such selection criteria, MIPSS 104 may generate a singleprintable representation that includes multimedia information from theplurality of news broadcast recordings related to the user-specifiedtopics of interest. The single consolidated printable representation maythen be printed to generate a single consolidated multimedia paperdocument that contains information related to “Middle East Terrorism”extracted from multiple multimedia documents. In this manner, multimediainformation from various multimedia sources or documents related touser-specified topics of interest may be consolidated into a singleprintable representation that may then be printed to generate amultimedia paper document. The multimedia paper document generated inthis manner is a valuable tool that enables the user to read andcomprehend related information from multiple sources in a timely andefficient manner.

FIG. 14 is a simplified high-level flowchart 1400 depicting a method ofgenerating a single printable representation according to an embodimentof the present invention that includes multimedia information selectedfrom a plurality of multimedia documents by analyzing the printablerepresentations of the plurality of multimedia documents. The methoddepicted in FIG. 14 may be used to generate a single multimedia paperdocument including multimedia information selected from a plurality ofmultimedia documents. The processing depicted in FIG. 14 may beperformed by software modules executing on MIPSS 104, by hardwaremodules coupled to MIPSS 104, or a combination thereof. In alternativeembodiments of the present invention, the processing may be distributedamong the various systems depicted in FIG. 1. The processing depicted inFIG. 14 is merely illustrative of an embodiment incorporating thepresent invention and does not limit the scope of the invention asrecited in the claims. One of ordinary skill in the art would recognizeother variations, modifications, and alternatives.

The method is initiated by determining the selection criteria (orcriterion) to be used for selecting the multimedia information to beincluded in the single printable representation and by determining theplurality of multimedia documents (or multimedia sources) from which themultimedia information is to be selected or extracted (step 1402). MIPSS104 then generates a printable representation for each multimediadocument determined in step 1402 if a printable representation does notalready exist for the multimedia document (step 1404). The printablerepresentations for the multimedia documents may be generated accordingto the methods depicted in FIGS. 4 and 6.

For each multimedia document identified in step 1402, MIPSS 104 searchesthe pages from the printable representation of the multimedia documentto identify a set of pages that comprise information that satisfies theselection criteria determined in step 1402 (step 1406). MIPSS 104 thengenerates a single consolidated printable representation that includesthe pages determined in step 1406 (step 1408). The single printablerepresentation generated in step 1408 may then be printed on a papermedium to generate a consolidated multimedia paper document (step 1410).The multimedia paper document generated in step 1410 comprisesinformation selected from the plurality of multimedia documents basedupon the selection criteria. For each page of the multimedia paperdocument generated in step 1410, information printed information thatsatisfies the selection criteria may be annotated.

As described above, the printable representations of the multimediadocuments are analyzed to identify portions of multimedia informationfrom the various multimedia documents to be included in the consolidatedprintable representation. According to alternative embodiments of thepresent invention, the multimedia information stored by the multimediadocuments may be analyzed to identify portions of the multimediainformation that satisfy the selection criteria. A consolidatedprintable representation may then be generated to include portions ofmultimedia information from the various multimedia documents thatsatisfy the selection criteria. The consolidated printablerepresentation may then be printed on a paper medium to generate aconsolidated or “customized” multimedia paper document.

FIG. 15 is a simplified high-level flowchart 1500 depicting anothermethod of generating a single printable representation that includesinformation extracted from a plurality of multimedia documents byanalyzing the multimedia information stored by the plurality ofmultimedia documents according to an embodiment of the presentinvention.

The method depicted in FIG. 15 may be used to generate a singlemultimedia paper document including multimedia information extractedfrom a plurality of multimedia documents. The processing depicted inFIG. 15 may be performed by software modules executing on MIPSS 104, byhardware modules coupled to MIPSS 104, or a combination thereof. Inalternative embodiments of the present invention, the processing may bedistributed among the various systems depicted in FIG. 1. The processingdepicted in FIG. 15 is merely illustrative of an embodimentincorporating the present invention and does not limit the scope of theinvention as recited in the claims. One of ordinary skill in the artwould recognize other variations, modifications, and alternatives.

The method is initiated by determining the selection criteria (orcriterion) to be used for selecting the multimedia information to beincluded in the single printable representation and by determining theplurality of multimedia documents (or multimedia sources) from which themultimedia information is to be selected (step 1502).

For each multimedia document determined in step 1502, MIPSS 104 dividesthe multimedia information contained by the multimedia document intosegments of a particular time length (step 1504). The process ofdividing a multimedia document into segments has been described earlierwith respect to FIG. 6.

For each multimedia document identified in step 1502, MIPSS 104 thendetermines those segments or portions of the multimedia document thatcomprise information that satisfies the selection criteria identified instep 1502 (step 1506). MIPSS 104 then generates a single consolidatedprintable representation based upon the segments determined in step 1506(step 1508). The single consolidated printable representation includessegments determined in step 1506. The single printable representationgenerated in step 1508 may then be printed on a paper medium to generatea consolidated multimedia paper document (step 1510). The multimediapaper document generated in step 1510 comprises information selectedfrom the plurality of multimedia documents based upon the selectioncriteria. The multimedia paper document generated in step 1510 maycomprise annotations identifying printed information that satisfies theselection criteria.

A multimedia paper document generated according to the flowchartsdepicted in FIGS. 14 and 15 may then be used as any other multimediapaper document. For example, a user may select one or moreuser-selectable identifiers from the consolidated multimedia paperdocument (as described above) and retrieve multimedia informationcorresponding to segments associated with the user-selectableidentifiers selected by the user.

FIGS. 16A, 16B, 16C, and 16D depict pages of a multimedia paper documentgenerated according to an embodiment of the present invention using themethod depicted in FIG. 14. The pages have been selected from aplurality of multimedia documents because they contain informationrelated to the topic of interest “Middle East Terrorism” that wasspecified as the selection criteria. The pages have been selected fromprintable representations generated for a plurality of multimediadocuments. For example, pages 1600 and 1602 depicted in FIGS. 16A and16B have been selected from a printable representation generated for a“CNN News Site (Channel 203)” recording that was recorded on May 30,2001 starting at 12:59 PM and is of length 56:40 minutes, page 1606depicted in FIG. 16C has been selected from a printable representationgenerated for a “Newshour (PBS, Channel 233)” recording that wasrecorded on Jun. 5, 2001 starting at 6:01 PM and is of length 54:49minutes, page 1604 depicted in FIG. 16D has been selected from aprintable representation generated for a “Hardball (CNBC, Channel 356)”recording that was recorded on Sep. 14, 2001 starting at 5:00 PM and isof length 59:59 minutes. For each page, information related to “MiddleEast Terrorism” has been annotated. This enhances the readability of themultimedia paper document. Accordingly, information related to “MiddleEast Terrorism” from a plurality of multimedia documents is consolidatedinto one document.

As described above, a user may generate a “customized” multimedia paperdocument by specifying appropriate selection criteria. In this manner,the user can quickly extract relevant information from multiple hours ofmultimedia broadcasts by simply reading the customized multimedia paperdocument. The present invention thus reduces the time spent by the userin locating and retrieving relevant information from multiple multimediainformation sources or recordings.

Coversheets

According to an embodiment of the present invention, the presentinvention also provides techniques for generating a coversheet for amultimedia paper document. The coversheet may provide a summary of thecontents printed in the multimedia paper document.

FIG. 17 depicts a coversheet 1700 generated for a multimedia paperdocument according to an embodiment of the present invention. Coversheet1700 depicted in FIG. 17 is merely illustrative of a coversheetaccording to an embodiment of the present invention and does not limitthe scope of the invention as recited in the claims. One of ordinaryskill in the art would recognize other variations, modifications, andalternatives.

As shown in FIG. 1700, coversheet 1700 comprises thumbnail images ofindividual pages included in the multimedia paper document. As shown,eight thumbnail images 1704 are printed on coversheet 1700 therebyindicating that the multimedia paper document comprises eight pages. Atitle section 1702 is also printed on coversheet 1700. Title section1702 displays the source of the multimedia information (which maycorrespond to the filename of the multimedia document), the time anddate when the multimedia information was recorded, and the total time ofthe recording.

A barcode 1706 is associated with each thumbnail image. A user may usebarcodes 1706 to access or retrieve multimedia information printed onthe pages in digital form. If the user wishes to access the multimediainformation corresponding to information printed on a particularmultimedia paper document page, the user may scan the barcodecorresponding to that particular page and then access or retrieve theinformation in electronic form using an output device specified by theuser. In this embodiment, selecting a barcode associated with aparticular page is equivalent to selecting all the segments printed onthat particular page. For example, if the user wishes to accessmultimedia information corresponding to the information printed on page6 of the multimedia paper document, the user may scan barcode 1706-6 andthen access the information (as previously described) using an outputdevice. The user may select one or more barcodes from coversheet 1700.

According to another embodiment of the present invention, a barcode 1706associated with a particular page is the same as the barcodecorresponding to the first segment printed on the particular page. Inthis embodiment, the user may scan a barcode for a particular page andretrieve multimedia information starting from the top of the particularpage.

FIG. 18 depicts a coversheet 1800 generated for a multimedia paperdocument according to another embodiment of the present invention. Inaddition to the features included in coversheet 1700 depicted in FIG.17, coversheet 1800 displays a list of sentences 1804 for each thumbnailimage 1802. According to an embodiment of the present invention, thesentences displayed for a particular thumbnail image summarize thecontents of the page corresponding to the particular thumbnail image.Several different techniques may be used to select the sentences for aparticular thumbnail image. According to an embodiment of the presentinvention, the first text sentence of each segment printed on the pagecorresponding to the thumbnail image may be printed in 1804. Accordingto another embodiment of the present invention, segments that containsCC text with story-line separators (e.g., “>>>”), the first sentence ofeach story printed on the page corresponding to the thumbnail image maybe printed in 1804. Other techniques known to those skilled in the artmay also be used to determine the text to be printed in area 1804 ofcoversheet 1800.

It should be apparent that coversheet 1800 depicted in FIG. 18 is merelyillustrative of a coversheet according to an embodiment of the presentinvention and does not limit the scope of the invention as recited inthe claims. One of ordinary skill in the art would recognize othervariations, modifications, and alternatives.

FIG. 19 depicts a coversheet 1900 generated according to anotherembodiment of the present invention for a multimedia paper document thathas been annotated based upon user-specified topics of interest. A titlesection 1902 is printed on coversheet 1900 displaying the source of themultimedia information (which may correspond to the filename of themultimedia document), the time and date when the multimedia informationwas recorded, and the total time of the recording. Topics of interest1904 to which the multimedia paper document is relevant are alsodisplayed. For each topic of interest, the degree of relevancy of themultimedia paper document to the topic of interest is also displayed. Inthe embodiment depicted in FIG. 1900, the degree or relevancy is denotedby a percentage value 1906.

Coversheet 1900 displays a thumbnail image 1908 of each page included inthe multimedia paper document. For pages that comprise informationrelated to user-specified topics, the thumbnail images corresponding tothose pages display the annotated words or phrases related touser-specified topics of interest. For a particular page comprisinginformation related to one or more user-specified topics of interest,the number of hits 1910 related to the topics of interest found on theparticular page are also displayed next to the thumbnail image of thepage. Different colors and styles may be used to highlight words andphrases in the thumbnails related to different topics. The hits for aparticular topic of interest may also be displayed using a color that isassociated with the topic of interest and used to highlight words andphrases related to the topic of interest. This allows the user of themultimedia paper document to easily identify pages of the multimediapaper document that include information related to user-specified topicsof interest.

It should be apparent that coversheet 1900 depicted in FIG. 19 is merelyillustrative of a coversheet according to an embodiment of the presentinvention and does not limit the scope of the invention as recited inthe claims. One of ordinary skill in the art would recognize othervariations, modifications, and alternatives.

FIG. 20 depicts a coversheet 2000 generated according to an embodimentof the present invention for a multimedia paper document that includespages selected from multiple multimedia paper documents based uponselection criteria. For example, the multimedia paper document may begenerated according to flowchart 1400 depicted in FIG. 14. Coversheet2000 depicted in FIG. 20 has been generated for a multimedia paperdocument that includes pages 1600, 1602, 1604, and 1606 depicted inFIGS. 16A, 16B, 16C, and 16D, respectively. It should be apparent thatcoversheet 2000 depicted in FIG. 20 is merely illustrative of acoversheet according to an embodiment of the present invention and doesnot limit the scope of the invention as recited in the claims. One ofordinary skill in the art would recognize other variations,modifications, and alternatives.

As depicted in FIG. 20, the selection criteria 2002 used for generatingthe multimedia paper document is printed on page 2000. Coversheet 2000displays a thumbnail image 2004 of each page included in the multimediapaper document. For pages that comprise information related to thesearch criteria, the thumbnail images corresponding to those pagesdisplaying the information with annotations. The number of hits 2006 forpages are also displayed. A barcode 2008 associated with each page isalso displayed. Coversheet 2000 also displays a date range 2010 that maybe selected by the user as part of the selection criteria. For example,multimedia paper document comprises information in the date range May 1,2001 to Sep. 20, 2001.

FIG. 21 depicts another coversheet 2100 generated according to anembodiment of the present invention for a multimedia paper document thatincludes pages selected from multiple multimedia paper documents basedupon selection criteria. Coversheet 2100 depicted in FIG. 21 has beengenerated for a multimedia paper document that includes pages 1600,1602, 1604, and 1606 depicted in FIGS. 16A, 16B, 16C, and 16D,respectively. It should be apparent that coversheet 2000 depicted inFIG. 20 is merely illustrative of a coversheet according to anembodiment of the present invention and does not limit the scope of theinvention as recited in the claims. One of ordinary skill in the artwould recognize other variations, modifications, and alternatives.

Coversheet 2100 shows more information than coversheet 2000 depicted inFIG. 2000. For each occurrence of words or phrases related to theselection criteria (e.g., text related to “Middle East Terrorism”), theline 2102 (or a user-configurable number of words surrounding therelevant word/phrase) comprising the relevant text or phrase (which isannotated) is displayed along with the time 2104 when the word/phraseoccurred in the recording and the page 2106 of the multimedia paperdocument on which the line is printed.

A barcode 2108 is also displayed for each line. According to anembodiment of the present invention, barcode 2108 corresponds to thebarcode for the page on which the line occurs. According to alternativeembodiments of the present invention, the barcode 2108 associated with aline may correspond to the barcode of the segment that contains thedisplayed line. Alternatively, barcode 2108 may correspond to a locationwithin the multimedia information when the relevant text/phrase occurs.Accordingly, barcode 2108 enables the user to access or retrievemultimedia information from a specific point in time.

A set of keyframes 2110 is also displayed for each line. According to anembodiment of the present invention, the keyframes that are mostrepresentative of the word/phrase or are relevant to the selectioncriteria may be displayed. Techniques for selecting keyframes relevantto selection criteria such as a user-specified topic of interest havebeen described above.

FIG. 22 depicts a coversheet 2200 generated according to an embodimentof the present invention for a multimedia paper document that has beengenerated for a recorded meeting. As shown in FIG. 22, coversheet 2200comprises thumbnail images of individual pages included in themultimedia paper document. As shown, six thumbnail images 2202 areprinted on coversheet 2200 thereby indicating that the multimedia paperdocument comprises eight pages. A title section 2204 is also printed oncoversheet 2200 and displays information identifying the meeting forwhich the multimedia paper document was generated, the time and datewhen the meeting was recorded, and the total time of the recording.Slides 2206 and whiteboard images 2208 are also printed next tothumbnail images corresponding to pages that comprise the slides orwhiteboard images.

It should be apparent that coversheets 1700, 1800, 1900, 2000, 2100, and2200 depicted in FIGS. 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, and 22, respectively, aremerely illustrative of specific embodiments of the present invention anddo not limit the scope of the invention as recited in the claims. One ofordinary skill in the art would recognize other variations,modifications, and alternatives. The coversheet generated according tothe teachings of the present invention thus provide a simple andconvenient way for the reader of the multimedia paper document to get anoverview of the contents of the multimedia paper document.

Although specific embodiments of the invention have been described,various modifications, alterations, alternative constructions, andequivalents are also encompassed within the scope of the invention. Thedescribed invention is not restricted to operation within certainspecific data processing environments, but is free to operate within aplurality of data processing environments. Additionally, although thepresent invention has been described using a particular series oftransactions and steps, it should be apparent to those skilled in theart that the scope of the present invention is not limited to thedescribed series of transactions and steps.

Further, while the present invention has been described using aparticular combination of hardware and software, it should be recognizedthat other combinations of hardware and software are also within thescope of the present invention. The present invention may be implementedonly in hardware, or only in software, or using combinations thereof.

The specification and drawings are, accordingly, to be regarded in anillustrative rather than a restrictive sense. It will, however, beevident that additions, subtractions, deletions, and other modificationsand changes may be made thereunto without departing from the broaderspirit and scope of the invention as set forth in the claims.

1. A computer-implemented method of using a paper document to retrievemultimedia information stored in a multimedia document in electronicform, wherein one or more user-selectable identifiers are printed on thepaper document, the method comprising: receiving a first signalindicating selection of a first user-selectable identifier from the oneor more user-selectable identifiers printed on the paper document;responsive to receiving the first signal, identifying a portion ofmultimedia information stored by the multimedia document correspondingto the first user-selectable identifier; and outputting the portion ofthe multimedia information corresponding to the first user-selectableidentifier using an output device.
 2. The method of claim 1 wherein thefirst signal comprises information identifying the output device.
 3. Themethod of claim 1 wherein: the fast signal comprises informationindicating a playback mode for outputting the portion of the multimediainformation corresponding to the first user-selectable identifier; andoutputting the portion of the multimedia information using the outputdevice comprises outputting the information according to the playbackmode.
 4. The method of claim 1 wherein the one or more user-selectableidentifiers include one or more barcodes printed on the paper document.5. The method of claim 1 wherein identifying the portion of multimediainformation stored by the multimedia document corresponding to the firstuser-selectable identifier comprises: determining a first time and asecond time corresponding to the first user-selectable identifier; andincluding a portion of the multimedia information stored by themultimedia document occurring between the first time and the second timein the portion of multimedia information corresponding to the firstuser-selectable identifier.
 6. The method of claim 1 wherein identifyingthe portion of multimedia information stored by the multimedia documentcorresponding to the first user-selectable identifier comprises:determining a first time corresponding to the first user-selectableidentifier; and including a portion of the multimedia information storedby the multimedia document occurring from the first time in the portionof multimedia information corresponding to the first user-selectableidentifier.
 7. The method of claim 1 wherein one or more control codesare printed on the paper document, the method further comprising:receiving a second signal indicating selection of a first control codefrom the one or more control codes printed on the paper document; andresponsive to receiving the second signal, controlling the output of theportion of the multimedia information corresponding to the firstuser-selectable identifier based upon the control code.
 8. A method ofusing a paper document to access multimedia information stored in amultimedia document in electronic form, wherein one or moreuser-selectable identifiers are printed on the paper document, themethod comprising: selecting a first user-selectable identifier from theone or more user-selectable identifiers printed on the paper document;requesting multimedia information corresponding to the firstuser-selectable identifier; and outputting a portion of the multimediainformation stored by the multimedia document corresponding to the firstuser-selectable identifier using an output device.
 9. The method ofclaim 8 wherein: the one or more user-selectable identifiers correspondto one or more barcodes printed on the paper document; and selecting thefirst user-selectable identifier comprises scanning a first barcode fromthe one or more barcodes printed on the paper document using a selectiondevice.
 10. The method of claim 8 wherein: the first user-selectableidentifier is associated with a first time and a second time; andoutputting the portion of the multimedia information corresponding tothe first user-selectable identifier using the output device comprisesoutputting a portion of the multimedia information stored by themultimedia document occurring between the first time and the secondtime.
 11. The method of claim 8 wherein: the first user-selectableidentifier is associated with a first time; and outputting the portionof the multimedia information corresponding to the first user-selectableidentifier using the output device comprises outputting a portion of themultimedia information stored by the multimedia document occurring fromthe first time.
 12. The method of claim 8 wherein one or more controlcodes are printed on the paper document, the method further comprising:selecting a first control code from the one or more control codesprinted on the paper document; and modifying the output of the portionof the multimedia information corresponding to the first user-selectableidentifier based upon the control code.
 13. A computer-implementedmethod of using a paper document to retrieve multimedia informationstored electronically in a multimedia document, wherein a firstplurality of user-selectable identifiers are printed on the paperdocument, the method comprising: receiving a signal indicating selectionof a second plurality of user-selectable identifiers from the firstplurality of user-selectable identifiers printed on the paper document,wherein the second plurality of user-selectable identifiers is a subsetof the first plurality of user-selectable identifiers; responsive toreceiving the first signal, identifying portions of multimediainformation stored by the multimedia document corresponding to thesecond plurality of user-selectable identifiers; and outputting theportions of the multimedia information corresponding to the secondplurality of user-selectable identifiers using an output device.
 14. Themethod of claim 13 wherein identifying portions of multimediainformation stored by the multimedia document corresponding to thesecond plurality of user-selectable identifiers comprises: for eachuser-selectable identifier in the second plurality of user-selectableidentifiers: determining a first time and a second time corresponding tothe user-selectable identifier; and including multimedia informationstored by the multimedia document occurring between the first time andthe second time corresponding to the user-selectable identifier in theportions of multimedia information corresponding to the second pluralityof user-selectable identifiers.
 15. A computer-implemented method ofretrieving multimedia information using a first paper document and asecond paper document, wherein one or more user-selectable identifiersare printed on the first paper document and one or more user-selectableidentifiers are printed on the second paper document, the methodcomprising: receiving a signal indicating selection of a firstuser-selectable identifier from the one or more user-selectableidentifiers printed on the first paper document, and indicatingselection of a second user-selectable identifier from the one or moreuser-selectable identifiers printed on the second paper document;identifying a portion of multimedia information corresponding to thefirst user-selectable identifier from multimedia information stored by afirst multimedia document; identifying a portion of multimediainformation corresponding to the second user-selectable identifier frommultimedia information stored by a second multimedia document; andoutputting the portion of multimedia information stored by the firstmultimedia document corresponding to the first user-selectableidentifier and the portion of multimedia information stored by thesecond multimedia document corresponding to the second user-selectableidentifier using an output device.
 16. The method of claim 15 wherein:identifying the portion of multimedia information corresponding to thefirst user-selectable identifier from multimedia information stored bythe first multimedia document comprises: determining a first time and asecond time associated with the first user-selectable identifier; andincluding a portion of multimedia information stored by the firstmultimedia document occurring between the first time and the second timeassociated with the first user-selectable identifier in the portion ofmultimedia information corresponding to the first user-selectableidentifier; and identifying the portion of multimedia informationcorresponding to the second user-selectable identifier from multimediainformation stored by the second multimedia document comprises:determining a first time and a second time associated with the seconduser-selectable identifier; and including a portion of multimediainformation stored by the second multimedia document occurring betweenthe fist time and the second time associated with the seconduser-selectable identifier in the portion of multimedia informationcorresponding to the second user-selectable identifier.
 17. A system forusing a paper document to retrieve multimedia information stored in amultimedia document in electronic form, wherein one or moreuser-selectable identifiers are printed on the paper document, thesystem comprising: an output device; and a data processor; wherein thedata processor is configured to: receive a first signal indicatingselection of a first user-selectable identifier from the one or moreuser-selectable identifiers printed on the paper document; identify aportion of multimedia information stored by the multimedia documentcorresponding to the first user-selectable identifier; and communicatethe portion of the multimedia information corresponding to the firstuser-selectable identifier to the output device; and wherein the outputdevice is configured to output the portion of the multimedia informationcorresponding to the first user-selectable identifier received from thedata processor.
 18. The system of claim 17 wherein the first signalcomprises information identifying the output device.
 19. The system ofclaim 17 wherein: the first signal comprises information indicating aplayback mode for outputting the portion of the multimedia informationcorresponding to the first user-selectable identifier; and the outputdevice is configured to output the portion of the multimedia informationaccording to the playback mode.
 20. The system of claim 17 wherein theone or more user-selectable identifiers includes barcodes printed on thepaper document.
 21. The system of claim 17 wherein in order to identifythe portion of multimedia information stored by the multimedia documentcorresponding to the first user-selectable identifier, the dataprocessor is configured to: determine a first time and a second timecorresponding to the first user-selectable identifier; and include aportion of the multimedia information stored by the multimedia documentoccurring between the first time and the second time in the portion ofmultimedia information corresponding to the first user-selectableidentifier.
 22. The system of claim 17 wherein in order to identify theportion of multimedia information stored by the multimedia documentcorresponding to the first user-selectable identifier, the dataprocessor is configured to: determine a first time corresponding to thefirst user-selectable identifier; and include a portion of themultimedia information stored by the multimedia document occurring fromthe first time in the portion of multimedia information corresponding tothe first user-selectable identifier.
 23. The system of claim 17 whereinone or more control codes are printed on the paper document, and thedata processor is configured to: receive a second signal indicatingselection of a first control code from the one or more control codesprinted on the paper document; and control the output of the portion ofthe multimedia information corresponding to the first user-selectableidentifier based upon the control code.
 24. A system for using a paperdocument to access multimedia information stored in a multimediadocument in electronic form, wherein one or more user-selectableidentifiers are printed on the paper document, the system comprising: aprocessor; and a memory coupled to the processor, the memory configuredto store a plurality of code modules for execution by the processor, theplurality of code modules comprising: a code module for selecting afirst user-selectable identifier from the one or more user-selectableidentifiers printed on the paper document; a code module for requestingmultimedia information corresponding to the first user-selectableidentifier; and a code module for outputting a portion of the multimediainformation stored by the multimedia document corresponding to the firstuser-selectable identifier using an output device.
 25. The system ofclaim 24 wherein: the one or more user-selectable identifiers correspondto one or more barcodes printed on the paper document; and the codemodule for selecting the first user-selectable identifier comprises acode module for scanning a first barcode from the one or more barcodesprinted on the paper document using a selection device.
 26. The systemof claim 24 wherein: the first user-selectable identifier is associatedwith a first time and a second time; and the code module for outputtingthe portion of the multimedia information corresponding to the firstuser-selectable identifier using the output device comprises a codemodule for outputting a portion of the multimedia information stored bythe multimedia document occurring between the first time and the secondtime.
 27. The system of claim 24 wherein: the first user selectableidentifier is associated with a first time; and the code module foroutputting the portion of the multimedia information corresponding tothe first user-selectable identifier using the output device comprises acode module for outputting a portion of the multimedia informationstored by the multimedia document occurring from the first time.
 28. Thesystem of claim 24 wherein one or more control codes are printed on thepaper document, the plurality of code modules fixer comprising: a codemodule for selecting a first control code from the one or more controlcodes printed on the paper document; and a code module for modifying theoutput of the portion of the multimedia information corresponding to thefirst user-selectable identifier based upon the control code.
 29. Asystem for using a paper document to retrieve multimedia informationstored electronically in a multimedia document, wherein a firstplurality of user-selectable identifiers are printed on the paperdocument, the system comprising: an output device; and a data processor;wherein the data processor is configured to: receive a signal indicatingselection of a second plurality of user-selectable identifiers from thefirst plurality of user-selectable identifiers printed on the paperdocument, wherein the second plurality of user-selectable identifiers isa subset of the first plurality of user-selectable identifiers; identifyportions of multimedia information stored by the multimedia documentcorresponding to the second plurality of user-selectable identifiers;and communicate the portions of the multimedia information of themultimedia document corresponding to the second plurality ofuser-selectable identifiers to the output device; and wherein the outputdevice is configured to output the portions of the multimediainformation corresponding to the second plurality of user-selectableidentifiers received from the data processor.
 30. The system of claim 29wherein in order to identify portions of multimedia information storedby the multimedia document corresponding to the second plurality ofuser-selectable identifiers, the data processor is configured to: foreach user-selectable identifier in the second plurality ofuser-selectable identifiers: determine a first time and a second timecorresponding to the user-selectable identifier; and include multimediainformation stored by the multimedia document occurring between thefirst time and the second time corresponding to the user-selectableidentifier in the portions of multimedia information corresponding tothe second plurality of user-selectable identifiers.
 31. A system forretrieving multimedia information using a first paper document and asecond paper document, wherein one or more user-selectable identifiersare printed on the fist paper document and one or more user-selectableidentifiers are printed on the second paper document, the systemcomprising: an output device; and a data processor; wherein the dataprocessor is configured to: receive a signal indicating selection of afirst user-selectable identifier from the one or more user-selectableidentifiers printed on the first paper document, and indicatingselection of a second user-selectable identifier from the one or moreuser-selectable identifiers printed on the second paper document;identify a portion of multimedia information corresponding to the firstuser-selectable identifier from multimedia information stored by a firstmultimedia document; identify a portion of multimedia informationcorresponding to the second user-selectable identifier from multimediainformation stored by a second multimedia document; and communicate theportion of multimedia information stored by the first multimediadocument corresponding to the first user-selectable identifier and theportion of multimedia information stored by the second multimediadocument corresponding to the second user-selectable identifier to theoutput device; and wherein the output device is configured to output theportion of multimedia information corresponding to the firstuser-selectable identifier and the portion of multimedia informationcorresponding to the second user-selectable identifier received from thedata processor.
 32. The system of claim 31 wherein: the data processoridentifies the portion of multimedia information corresponding to thefirst user-selectable identifier from multimedia information stored bythe first multimedia document by: determining a first time and a secondtime associated with the first user-selectable identifier; and includinga portion of multimedia information stored by the first multimediadocument occurring between the first time and the second time associatedwith the first user-selectable identifier in the portion of multimediainformation corresponding to the first user-selectable identifier; andthe data processor identifies the portion of multimedia informationcorresponding to the second user-selectable identifier from multimediainformation stored by the second multimedia document by: determining afirst time and a second time associated with the second user-selectableidentifier; and including a portion of multimedia information stored bythe second multimedia document occurring between the first time and thesecond time associated with the second user-selectable identifier in theportion of multimedia information corresponding to the seconduser-selectable identifier.
 33. A computer program product stored on acomputer-readable storage medium for using a paper document to retrievemultimedia information stored in a multimedia document in electronicform, wherein one or more user-selectable identifiers are printed on thepaper document, the computer program product comprising: code forreceiving a first signal indicating selection of a first user-selectableidentifier from the one or more user-selectable identifiers printed onthe paper document; code for identifying a portion of multimediainformation stored by the multimedia document corresponding to the firstuser-selectable identifier; and code for outputting the portion of themultimedia information using an output device.
 34. The computer programproduct of claim 33 wherein the code for identifying the portion ofmultimedia information stored by the multimedia document correspondingto the first user-selectable identifier comprises: code for determininga first time and a second time corresponding to the firstuser-selectable identifier; and code for including a portion of themultimedia information stored by the multimedia document occurringbetween the first time and the second time in the portion of multimediainformation corresponding to the first user-selectable identifier. 35.The computer program product of claim 33 wherein the code foridentifying the portion of multimedia information stored by themultimedia document corresponding to the first user-selectableidentifier comprises: code for determining a first time corresponding tothe first user-selectable identifier; and code for including a portionof the multimedia information stored by the multimedia documentoccurring from the first time in the portion of multimedia informationcorresponding to the first user-selectable identifier.
 36. The computerprogram product of claim 33 wherein one or more control codes areprinted on the paper document, the computer program product furthercomprising: code for receiving a second signal indicating selection of afirst control code from the one or more control codes printed on thepaper document; and code for controlling the output of the portion ofthe multimedia information corresponding to the first user-selectableidentifier based upon the control code.
 37. A computer program productstored on a computer-readable storage medium for using a paper documentto access multimedia information stored in a multimedia document inelectronic form, wherein one or more user-selectable identifiers areprinted on the paper document the computer program product comprising:code for selecting a first user-selectable identifier from the one ormore user-selectable identifiers printed on the paper document; code forrequesting multimedia information corresponding to the firstuser-selectable identifier; and code for outputting a portion of themultimedia information stored by the multimedia document correspondingto the first user-selectable identifier using an output device.
 38. Thecomputer program product of claim 37 wherein: the one or moreuser-selectable identifiers correspond to one or more barcodes printedon the paper document; and the code for selecting the firstuser-selectable identifier comprises code for scanning a first barcodefrom the one or more barcodes printed on the paper document using aselection device.
 39. The computer program product of claim 37 wherein:the first user-selectable identifier is associated with a first time anda second time; and the code for outputting the portion of the multimediainformation corresponding to the first user-selectable identifier usingthe output device comprises code for outputting a portion of themultimedia information stored by the multimedia document occurringbetween the first time and the second time.
 40. The computer programproduct of claim 37 wherein: the first user-selectable identifier isassociated with a first time; and the code for outputting the portion ofthe multimedia information corresponding to the first user-selectableidentifier using the output device comprises code for outputting aportion of the multimedia information stored by the multimedia documentoccurring from the first time.
 41. The computer program product of claim37 wherein one or more control codes are printed on the paper document,the computer program product further comprising: code for selecting afirst control code from the one or more control codes printed on thepaper document; and code for modifying the output of the portion of themultimedia information corresponding to the first user-selectableidentifier based upon the control code.
 42. A computer program productstored on a computer-readable storage medium for using a paper documentto retrieve multimedia information stored electronically in a multimediadocument, wherein a first plurality of user-selectable identifiers areprinted on the paper document, the computer program product comprising:code for receiving a signal indicating selection of a second pluralityof user-selectable identifiers from the first plurality ofuser-selectable identifiers printed on the paper document, wherein thesecond plurality of user-selectable identifiers is a subset of the firstplurality of user-selectable identifiers; code for responsive toreceiving the first signal, identifying portions of multimediainformation stored by the multimedia document corresponding to thesecond plurality of user-selectable identifiers; and code for outputtingthe portions of the multimedia information corresponding to the secondplurality of user-selectable identifiers using an output device.
 43. Thecomputer program product of claim 42 wherein the code for identifyingportions of multimedia information stored by the multimedia documentcorresponding to the second plurality of user-selectable identifierscomprises: for each user-selectable identifier in the second pluralityof user-selectable identifiers: code for determining a first time and asecond time corresponding to the user-selectable identifier; and codefor including multimedia information stored by the multimedia documentoccurring between the first time and the second time corresponding tothe user-selectable identifier in the portions of multimedia informationcorresponding to the second plurality of user-selectable identifiers.44. A computer program product stored on a computer-readable storagemedium for retrieving multimedia information using a first paperdocument and a second paper document, wherein one or moreuser-selectable identifiers are printed on the first paper document andone or more user-selectable identifiers are printed on the second paperdocument, the computer program product comprising: code for receiving asignal indicating selection of a first user-selectable identifier fromthe one or more user-selectable identifiers printed on the first paperdocument, and indicating selection of a second user-selectableidentifier from the one or more user-selectable identifiers printed onthe second paper document; code for identifying a portion of multimediainformation corresponding to the first user-selectable identifier frommultimedia information stored by a first multimedia document; code foridentifying a portion of multimedia information corresponding to thesecond user-selectable identifier from multimedia information stored bya second multimedia document; and code for outputting the portion ofmultimedia information stored by the first multimedia documentcorresponding to the first user-selectable identifier and the portion ofmultimedia information stored by the second multimedia documentcorresponding to the second user-selectable identifier using an outputdevice.
 45. The computer program product of claim 44 wherein: the codefor identifying the portion of multimedia information corresponding tothe first user-selectable identifier from multimedia information storedby the first multimedia document comprises: code for determining a firsttime and a second time associated with the first user-selectableidentifier; and code for including a portion of multimedia informationstored by the first multimedia document occurring between the first timeand the second time associated with the first user-selectable identifierin the portion of multimedia information corresponding to the firstuser-selectable identifier; and the code for identifying the portion ofmultimedia information corresponding to the second user-selectableidentifier from multimedia information stored by the second multimediadocument comprises: code for determining a first time and a second timeassociated with the second user-selectable identifier; and code forincluding a portion of multimedia information stored by the secondmultimedia document occurring between the first time and the second timeassociated with the second user-selectable identifier in the portion ofmultimedia information corresponding to the second user-selectableidentifier.